Column by Jacob Sims
Congress and the White House just don’t seem to get it. Every taxpayer in the United States has to be thrifty with their money, spend it wisely and balance their budget in the midst of this economic downturn; neither Congress nor the White House is doing any of these things. Every American is required to pay their taxes, and they are punished if they don’t; members in Washington D.C. that don’t pay their taxes get nominated to Obama’s cabinet. Every American understands that their actions have consequences, and if they make a bad decision, they have to deal with the repercussions. Congress seems to reward the individuals and companies that made those bad decisions.
Obama has called for a “new era of responsibility,†which, by name alone, I would adamantly support. The problem is that these are merely words with no substance. I know it is difficult to remember the election season since it was so long ago, but if you recall, Obama was elected on a number of Republican ideals and typically conservative talking points. He claimed that he would balance the budget and stated that he would end wasteful pork barrel legislation, neither of which, it seems, he will do.
During the campaign, Obama declared, “we need earmark reform, and when I am president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.†The president made a vow with John McCain to reform the process of earmarks, a pledge that, as his words indicate, he plans on breaking again. I say again because he recently signed the $787 Billion dollar “spendulus†package that was laden with earmarks, and he is about to sign another $410 Billion dollar spending bill that, depending on who you ask, has anywhere from 8,000-9,000 pet projects that have been added to the bill. According to the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense, there is $7.7 billion of wasteful pork barrel spending in this bill.
We are at the heart of an economic decline, in which every dime makes an impact in the lives of Americans. There is no need to waste our money on this spending spree when families and their children are the ones that are feeling the squeeze of the economy. Parents are losing jobs. Kids are suffering. Families are hurting. Minorities have been hit hard. Our age group has been hit the hardest in regard to unemployment.
President Obama has warned repeatedly of the danger that we are in (reciting the word “crisis†25 times in one speech). Why then, would he allow $7.7 billion to be spent on projects that spend $7 million on saving Hawaiian sea turtles or $2.6 million on the monk seal? The list goes further: $5.8 million for the Ted Kennedy Institute, $9.5 million to remodel the committee rooms in the House of Representatives, $238,000 for the Polynesian Voyaging Society, $950,000 for Myrtle Beach International Trade and Convention Center, $5.6 million for explorers at the JASON Project, $100,000 for the Maine Lobster Foundation and $150,000 for Maine Lobster research. Since I am such a nerd, I actually read the bill, and trust me when I say that it gets more bizarre and even more ridiculous.
It is not to say that these things aren’t nice things to do or have. I compare it to the new 2010 Mercedes Benz E-Class that is coming out in April: I would love to have it but, sadly, I cannot afford it. Unfortunately, Congress and Obama apparently don’t (or in Bush’s case, didn’t) understand this concept.
If Obama genuinely believes that we are on the brink of another Depression, why is he allowing Congress to spend irresponsibly in his “new era of responsibility�
The argument he makes is that he will allow it now and take care of it later. I don’t see that happening when Steny Hoyer, Democratic Leader of the House, says, “I don’t think that the White House has the ability to tell us what to do.â€
Not that I think that Obama planned on it anyway. His administration, with the advice of Stanley Greenburg and James Carville, decided to pick a fight with Rush Limbaugh and create a false epidemic instead of following through on his word to make sure that Congress isn’t spending money unwisely. Nothing has changed. It is still business as usual in Washington D.C.
Jacob Sims is a political science and history sophomore and president of UK College Republicans. E-mail opinions@kykernel.com.
I can so relate to your article,If you ran your finances like the Govt. does you would be on the street. I am a 67yr.old male and am not real concerned about my future.However i am concerned about my family, And the people in your age group.I had the good fortune of living in the greatest country that has ever existed in the history of man.Tax and spend will not fix it.It is the couse of it.It seems to me local,state,and Federal Govt.(SERVENTS) have lost touch with reality. Hope i am wrong.
All part of Obama’s campaign promise to remake America. Too bad that no one in the adoring media bothered to ask The One what he meant by “remaking”. We’re beginning to find out. And so are our traditional allies, like the British.
oh crap – I still drive my beat up Honda bc I would also be on the street if I got the E- class. oh crap
Obama = One Big A$$ Mistake, America!
This is why you need to look beyond the surface of the candidate and not vote for “change” because it is the PC thing to do. Learn from your mistakes folks and let’s just hope we can hang on until the 2010 elections. Good luck!
So you are upset about ONE PERCENT of a bill being pork? Wow. Get a life! Besides, every bit of that “pork” are jobs for regular people. Let’s face it, Voodoo Economics has driven this country into ruin (unless are you in the top 2% or so in earnings). It’s time for a change, and it’s happening. Deal with it.
Let me get this straight: $250,000 for research on lobsters–research that will benefit the biggest (and it might be argued the only healthy) industry in the State of Maine–is pork? The Maine Lobster industry is a $395 million dollar a year business and investing $250K to make it more efficient and sustainable seems to be a wise way to spend money–not bizarre and ridiculous.
“Let me get this straight: $250,000 for research on lobsters–research that will benefit the biggest (and it might be argued the only healthy) industry in the State of Maine–is pork? The Maine Lobster industry is a $395 million dollar a year business and investing $250K to make it more efficient and sustainable seems to be a wise way to spend money–not bizarre and ridiculous.”
Exactly. Republicans will scream and yell and complain about anything they can, but at the end of the day, this *PORK* actually helps retain jobs and nurtures industry. The ignorance in their rhetoric is mind-boggling.
I made the statement that a good deal of these earmarks are fine but we are in an economic downturn and are already in debt an obscene amount of money. Is now really the time that we need to be building the Ted Kennedy Institute? Is now really the time to be wasting $7.7 billion dollars when we are already in debt $11,000,000,000,000?
I wasn’t making the point as a Republican but as a taxpayer. Nobody minds paying taxes unless their money is spent irresponsibly, which I believe that it is.
Myles, are you insinuating that you are the omniscient being and that about 1/3 of America is ignorant because they are Republicans? Are you suggesting that you know everything there is to know about life and politics and that 57% of Kentuckians are mindless creatures because they voted for McCain instead of the Almighty One? I’ll devote my next article to you since you are the light and we are all blind imbeciles that cannot help being blinded in our foolish ways. I don’t mind you being a dickhead but don’t diminish someone’s opinion because we want our money to be spent wisely in a time in which that resource is scarce.
Please do so, I look forward to it.
Jacob,
Would this article be as rife with the same misinformation and paranoid counterpoints your other articles have graced us with? I honestly do not know where you gather your “evidence” on many of your columns; it seems that mostly, all the misinformation you give seems to be pasted right out of talk radio or freerepublic or any other such nonsense. Your column about the housing crisis several weeks ago made *absolutely* no sense, and further discredited your opinion on the entire subject matter when you vehemently accused “those liberal Democrats” of causing the entire thing, by not letting White Knight George W. Bush “reign in Fannie and Freddie.” Give me a break. I look forward to hearing about how evil I am for pointing out the inconsistencies in your columns on a weekly basis and pointing fun when you wrongfully sneer at legislation because either they are “too long to read” or have funding for something you think has a silly name to it.
Sims — you are becoming so irrelevant that the Kernel isn’t even putting your articles in print anymore. Oh how the mighty have fallen.