Democratic Rep. Gwen Moore, who represents Wisconsin’s fourth Congressional district, has published a list of her earmark requests online, and among the groups that would receive federal funds are the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, Marquette University, and Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin. Rep. Moore published her list of earmark requests online in accordance with new rules put into place by the House Appropriations Committee. Among Rep. Moore’s requests was $8.6 million for the replacement of the firestation for the 128th Air Refueling Wing, $1 million to purchase new buses for the Milwaukee County Transit System, and over $400,000 for programs to assist veterans.
Predictably, Rep. Moore’s Republican challenger, Dan Sebring, was quick to attack Rep. Moore’s earmark requests, but I can’t help but wonder whether Dan Sebring would request any earmarks for the fourth district if he were elected to the House, or whether he’d just sit on his hands and do nothing to help his constituents.
It’s very telling you equate earmarks with helping constituents.
Besides, I thought Obama was against earmarks before he was for them before he was against them again.
Ahh, more “honesty” from Zach. Did you read the post Dan linked to, or just make assumptions?
It made no mention of the Air Refueling Wing fire house, nor to the requests to assist veterans.
It did shred requests that were non sensical and a total waste of our money.
A park in a brownfield? Really? And just blocks from Mitchell Park?
Millions for Marquette University? That poverty stricken organization that can barely pay their hoops coach millions? Another waste.
Next time actually read something before you flame it. When you don’t you look “Moore” silly than usual.
So wait….you had a problem when I picked a few points out of your health care reform “plan” to address without addressing all of the points, but yet, it’s okay for Dan Sebring to selectively pick and choose which of the earmarks requested by Gwen Moore he has an issue with, without Sebring noting the “good” requests?
Face facts….you’re not interested in honesty if it doesn’t help your preferred candidate.
Here’s the weird part about politicians who rail against earmarks (I don’t mean pork). The more tax revenue they can successfully withhold from their district constituent’s pockets and still fool the people enough to get re-elected, they’re called “conservatives” and win taxpayer hero awards.
Actually you describe liberals, not conservatives. They withhold money from their constituents pockets (higher taxes) and then turn around and spend a portion to buy their votes, claiming to be putting some of it back into their pockets. The Mob used to do that, too.
They literally try to bribe people with their own money. It amazes me that it still works.
Conservatives seek to lower taxes, leaving money in their constituents pockets in the first place, and lower spending to what is minimally required only. All the “nice to have” stuff can be paid for only if there is some money left after paying for the minimally required government functions (public safety, armed forces, legal system, etc.)
Take it or leave, right now Congressman cannot legislate special tax exemptions and formulaes just for their own districts, but they can appropriate revenue back. Not to do so is not only downright cheap, it’s cruel.
Really? No special formulas and exemptions? See special Nebraska medicaid provision.
There’s no need to legislate special tax exemptions for indiviual districts, they could do it for EVERYBODY!
Trust me, I would rather have more money in my pocket than some special perk for Marquette Univ. By the way, shouldn’t there be some liberal protest about a church-state violation with a private and supposedly religious organization receiving this money?
No, what’s cruel is spending money we don’t have and leaving trillions of debt in our wake.
you may think it’s a-ok for YOUR congressperson to “bring home the bacon”, but when all 435 of them are doing that every year, we end up with ridiculous debts incurred for projects that have little to no merit on the national level.
The whole reason earmarks exist is because they could never pass these pork projects on their own merit, so they attach them to a bill that is politically guaranteed to pass.
The whole thing is wrong, no matter which congressperson is doing it.
My congressman is Paul Ryan, one of the best tax withholders in Congress. His district is in economic shambles. By the way, earmarks account for less than 2% of total spending. Businesses lose more to that in theft. Take the $787 billion stimulus bill. It contained $7.7 billion in earmarks charging up over 8,570 projects. That’s about 1 percent. Pork was considered less than 1/10 of that. Chasing down less than 1% in debatable wasteful spending is politically expedient for campaigning (and buying votes) and is an exercise in futility, but it will certainly not balance our budgets or help paydown debt.
What do you mean by “tax withholder”? Did I miss something and he opposes tax cuts or something? Because the tax withholding on my paycheck is the only kind I know.
forgotmyscreenname, what happened with the Nebraska deal was obviously wrong. But it was a state exemption, not a district exemption. There is a difference.
And the difference is? For a U.S. Senator the state IS the district.
Why are you two trying to distinguish something that isn’t there?
The stimulus bill was a giant collection of earmarks. They were only not described as earmarks because they were in the main body of the legislation. That’s a very poor example.
There is no defense of earmarks, and for you to criticize Paul Ryan for doing what is right (and not using taxpayer money like a personal campaign slush fund) says far more about you and your character, than it does about his.
Talk about the greater good & not being selfish…
That is exactly what earmarks and “bringing home the bacon” is. It’s saying, I don’t care about anyone else, I want mine. It’s very simple – if you wouldn’t want it for everybody, you have no right to take it for yourself.
And I don’t know where to even begin with the “it’s only a small percentage of spending” argument. It’s billions of dollars and frequently more about buying support of something else ie. bribery.
If you cannot comprehend how this contributes to our out of control debt, and how passing trillions of dollars in IOUs to our children & grandchildren might not be such a good idea there’s no help for you.
Are you serious? Dan “said” nothing. He linked to a blog site on his Facebook page.
Why are you attributing anything on the blog to him?
He linked to the blog site from his Facebook page? Cool and a half, but did he link from his campaign site page?
So is Mr. Sebring a Republican or something else? And why does his Facebook page rather than his campaign website seem to be his system of record?
Ed, Dan Sebring is a Republican….one look at his campaign website makes that pretty clear.
On the home page of his website, the word Republican appears only twice, and that is in the Democrats outright lie article posted near the end in the left hand column. I didn’t see him use it to describe his campaign or himself on the site.
http://www.dansebringforcongress.com/
Btw: I don’t see a lot of content with this year’s date on it…
Ed, Dan Sebring doesn’t use the word Republican a lot on his website likely because he knows it’s better if he flies “under the radar” given how the district is heavily Democratic. However, if you read between the lines on his website, it’s pretty clear he’s a staunch Republican.
You have to go a few pages deep to see him claim Republican.
Gentlemen – this is something the Democratic Party has been doing for about a decade. Running conservative/Blue Dog candidates in strong Republican districts, minimizing that they’re Democrats, etc. The Republican Party by and large has resisted this. It’s been a winning strategy for the Dems as they have won seats in areas where historically they haven’t had much success.
And how did he get to be My Voice in Washington prior to being elected? Is he a lobbyist for my industry? And under PEOPLE: people supporting his ‘program’ are included the The Citizens of the County of Milwaukee. Is this a ‘group’ or is claiming credit for support of 100% of the county’s population? Maybe we should say 99% cause I don’t think Representative Moore or myself are included in that group!