List of earmarks for Michele Bachmann's district:
- $94,000 for Sheriffs Youth Program of MN
- $335,000 for Equipment Acquisition for Northland Medical Center
- $803,000 for Replacement Small Buses, St. Cloud Metro Bus
and many more. Details here.
Does she really think she can get away with these lies! Well, actually, yes.
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Of course everybody criticizing her is wrong.
The secret is not calling them earmarks anymore, if she is the one proposing them. They now are a "little deserved push for the proud people of Minnesota directly from their diligent servant in congress."
Well, yes, and the funny thing is that most "earmarks" are pretty much normal spending that is typical, useuful, often needed, and not worth debating in congress. It is like saying "OK, 85% of this money we're going to spend on federal programs with a lot of attention, and 15% we're going to trust individual members of congress to know what is needed in her/his district". Indeed, the items for Bachmann's district were pretty reasonable.
The hypocrisy, is, of course, lying about the whole system all the time to everyone for personal gain.
Yes, but what the conservatives do is to shape the discourse. In this case earmarks=bad, ugly and stinky, while what I do (whatever it is) is good.
After careful meditation for 50 seconds, I don't think their ability to shape the argument is derived from some "superiority" or "master machiavelic (rovian?) know-how", but from the lower instincts and diminished will for analysis of their base.
It took me a little longer to figure out where are the intelligent conservatives in this country. Now I know, they call themselves moderate democrats.
It has been proposed that earmars be put either individually or on small lots in Earmarks Bills, that can be voted for or against. Not tacked at the end of unrelated or "must-pass" bills.
In some stats (i.e, Minnesota) it is unconstitutional to pass a bill that does two or more things (in terms of making laws, etc.) so no spending can be added to some bill that everyone loves. The budget is a line-item veto affair.
With that guy as their leader perhaps the district really, I mean really, needs those small[short] buses. Kind of a short bus kind of place.
As I've mentioned elsewhere: under the american system, "earmarks", aka: the legislature telling the executive where money must be spent, is one of the most important functions of the legislature.