20060503 Congressional Pork: The Other Red Meat by Kevin Dayhoff

20060503 Congressional Pork: The Other Red Meat by Kevin Dayhoff

Congressional Pork: The Other Red Meat

May 3, 2006, by Kevin E. Dayhoff

The Tentacle

A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll provided insight into the mind of the electorate. We are tired of pork, otherwise known as “earmarks.” And, rightfully so.

Even the least knowledgeable among us of the machinations and meanderings of Congress understands that someday the bill for our elected representative current obsession with credit card debt will eventually have to be paid.

Wasn’t it the Clinton administration that was so often criticized for not having any convictions, vision or plan of its own, except to go in the direction the latest poll? Maybe that’s why there is so much emphasis these days on poll numbers.

Bold leaders lead and only spineless superficial political sycophants are pre-occupied with news media fad polls. News media polls often involve selective trivialities trumping substance in an obvious attempt to distort the facts or promote an agenda.

Nevertheless, the results of this current Wall Street Journal/NBC poll are resonating as congressional pork has evolved from a minor annoyance into a major irritation. Voters are noticing that Congress has a bad habit of irresponsibly including local project expenditures into appropriation bills, which bypass the budgeting process, are authorized without debate, and have nothing to do with the focus of the national issues being addressed.

Advancing age allows us to ignore the folly of becoming unnecessarily excited about the manic swings and obsessive gnashing of teeth over “inside baseball” issues that ultimately will be but a mere blip in the history books. Thirty-five years from now, the hysteria over the Valerie Plame affair will be little more than a sentence in a chapter on the beginnings of this century. But those reading that sentence still will be cognizant of the debt with which we saddled them.

The agitation over the newfound, undisciplined spending and fiscal irresponsibility of the Republican-led U. S. Congress has staying power; and, if we are not careful, it may very well become a real issue in this fall’s elections.

Read the rest of the column here: Congressional Pork: The Other Red Meat

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