I was very worried that because of Democratic and Progressive timidity all was lost in 2012 as obstructionist policies by the GOP/Tea Party continued against what was left of the Obama agenda. I must admit that even before any of their new cohorts are seated I am feeling a confidence I did not have before the 2010 midterm elections.
One of the signature items the Tea Party waged against was deficits and in that light earmarks. With many of the Tea Partiers already taking earmarks and stepping back on all the rhetoric they expounded about many other issues, it is only a matter of time before all but the indoctrinated realize they have been had .
Notably absent is there support for their star, Sarah Palin whose popularity launched many of their successes. When asked of Sarah Palin’s qualifications for the presidency most have abstained as if they are one step away from throwing her to wolves.
Notwithstanding a mortgage/banking collapse which I think the Feds will avert by continuing to inflate the number of dollars in the system without penalty giving Europe’s week currency & economy, our economy will be limping along fast enough to bolster the President. If the President’s fortunes are positive, he is likely to have coat tails.
So Progressive need not despair. This rough patch allows all Americans a small window to again peak at supply side policies. It should remind them why they went progressive after 30 years of the middle class being pilfered by the wealthy, the plutocrats, & the oligarchs.
Tea Party Caucus Took $1 BILLION In Earmarks
The Huffington Post | Nick Wing First Posted: 12- 2-10 11:20 AM
Cutting federal spending may be a rhetorical cornerstone of the Tea Party and the congressional members of its official caucus, but a recent report finds that its delegates requested a large number of earmarks in the 111th Congress at a cost of more than $1 billion to taxpayers.
Hotline On Call’s report on records from Citizens Against Government Waste found that the 52 members of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus were responsible for 764 earmarks that racked up a tab of $1,049,783,150 in federal dollars. Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) and 13 of her Tea Party Caucus-mates are notably absent from the list of requests.
The problem of earmark hypocrisy extends beyond the House, though, where members of the Senate approached a potential pork ban with equal fervor.
While some, such as Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) continued to describe earmarks as a "gateway drug to spending addiction in Washington" in their crusade to cut the practice, other purported opponents, like Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) proved unable to kick the habit.
Just three days after GOP senators proposed a ban on federal carve-outs, an eventually unsuccessful endeavor, Kyl locked up a $200 million earmark "to settle an Arizona Indian tribe’s water rights claim against the government."
While perhaps the most egregious example of immediate duplicity, six more senators who were in favor of the elimination of earmarks had been guilty of requesting millions of dollars in taxpayer money just months before. And that’s not to mention Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who eventually threw his weight behind the ban, despite having steered nearly $1 billion in pork by himself alone.
