| Mike Pirtle: How about we earmark those who earmark our tax money? |
|
By: MIKE PIRTLE, Post President/Publisher
|
Posted: Sunday, March 22, 2009 7:33 am
|
 Email  Print
|
In the good old days, say seven or eight years ago, earmarks were historical.
Way back when Europeans were settling in our state, they let their hogs roam free and fend for themselves by foraging.
But, folks wanted to retain ownership of their wandering hogs so they identified them by marking their ears. They might put two notches on the left ear and one on the right, or some such combination, so everyone one know that a particular pig was for example a Pirtle pig.
Earmarks back then generally were a good thing, unless you got caught with a pig, or worse part of a pig, with someone else’s marks on the pig’s ears.
Now, earmarks are pretty much a negative term.
It applies to federal spending that has been “earmarked” by a particular congress member for a specific purpose.
Earmarks probably started beneficially, say tagging money to be used for hurricane victims or funding for MRSA (see Hank Haines’ column).
As is always the case in Congress, something beneficial is twisted to political abuse.
Soon earmarks were paying for airports in West Virginia sticks and Alaskan highways to nowhere, to pay tens of millions to keep lemon growers from growing too many lemons so American consumers could pay really high prices, for stuff beyond all imagination.
Ultimately, a gigantic sum of federal funds was being specifically directed to all manner of narrow purpose projects. A bloated federal budget became even less effective in achieving something beneficial for all of us.
While fingers point from the left and right, earmarks are bipartisan abuse.
They really took off in George W. Bush’s first term when Republicans controlled Congress, but when power shifted to the Democrats the only thing that changed was the ratio.
President Obama promised to try to end that practice. It didn’t happen in the latest federal spending bill but that was in the works before he took office even though it passed after and maybe he could have done something although without a line-item veto that may not be possible.
Maybe next year when his administration plays a direct role in preparing the budget, he can chop away at the earmarks. Maybe. Congress still approves spending bills, and keeping congress folk away from the pork trough has been debated and argued and ignored for many, many presidents now.
Maybe we could find a way to get enough of them to pass a bill to require an earmark for an earmark.
So, if Congressman Mie Destrik wants to build a Cottonpickers Hall of Fame, he must be willing to have to notches cut in his left ear and one in his right (or visa versa if he’s Republican).
After a few marked earns, the wasteful spending habits would slowly decline. At some time for sure, congress members would simply run out of resources, i.e., ear cartlidge, to mark.
Maybe it wouldn’t work, but it’s a modest idea to consider.
•••
Let’s see spring arrived Friday and spring break for city and county schools officially starts Monday. Coincidence?
Maybe we should schedule spring break in February next year and see if we can save some money on heating bills.
•••
The forsythia bushes in the Pirtle family lawn, hated by the mister but beloved by the missus, have been in full bloom for more than a week now, much longer than I can ever remember.
I hate them because they grow like weeks and constantly require trimming, but usually bloom for about 15 minutes before the admittedly breath-taking yellow blossoms fall off.
This year, having avoided the many false starts of previous winters, the forsythia have shown beauteous staying power.
•••
To end on a serious note: You won’t find a better example of a commitment to excellence and a gentleman than Randy King who announced last week his resignation as head boys’ basketball coach at Oakland High School.
King’s 20 straight years of 20 or more wins is mind-boggling. To do that at the high school level where talent or lack thereof is an uncontrollable but critical element speaks to a level of excellence and ability to teach, adjust and gain trust very, very few could even hope to attain.
And, Coach King is a fine man and overall example.
Oakland’s gym bears his name as well is should.
We wish him great happiness in his retirement. |
|
Digg
Facebook
MySpace
Yahoo!