| The Lord of Lafayette invokes his opposition to earmarks as being "fiscally responsible." Ditto for McCain and his running mate, Palin.
What do they think we are, idiots? They apparently must think so ...
Allow me to put this in perspective, folks ... by linking to another blogger at Real Clear Politics:
... the reason earmarks aren't a critical problem is that they are a tiny percentage of total federal spending.
For instance, estimates from watchdog groups of total earmark spending in fiscal 2008 range from $16-18 billion. Current estimated outlays for the federal government in fiscal 2008 are $2.9 trillion (PDF alert). That's less than one percent.
To put it another way, the current projected deficit is roughly $400 billion. Even if John McCain got rid of every earmark (an impossible task), it would only make a small contribution to deficit reduction. (See Factcheck.org's takedown of McCain's exaggerated claims of how much it can save by reducing earmarks.)
Now, LA-07, as we all know, got hammered by Hurricane Rita on September 24, 2005. Cameron took a pretty big hit. And Lord Boustany's disdain for earmarks is the height of irresponsible representation ... as I'm sure that there was an earmark for building a floodwall, or raising the levees or rebuilding the coastline out in Southwest Louisiana that you could have requested to help prevent Cameron from getting flooded for the second time in less than three years by a hurricane that wasn't even a direct hit:
I was struck by the following in that Advocate article linked to just above:
Clifton Hebert, director of the Cameron Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness, offered a grim report of damage to his area with a lot of home damage from flooding. This included homes that had been moved, twisted and hollowed out.
"It's going to be really tough. It's pretty much done in a lot of people," he said. "Three years later they were just beginning to recuperate and they lose everything again."
"We had 6,500 homes and businesses damaged and 1,700 severely damaged for Rita," said Rebecca Broussard, director of the Vermilion Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness. "This time, it will depend on the houses that were elevated after Rita. A lot of them were waiting on housing mitigation loans, now three years later."
Three years to get housing mitigation loans? Three YEARS?! With all those "Making Congress Work Outreach Sessions" your staff had all over the district last year, I'm sure someone told you that they were having a hard time getting loans to raise their homes above flood level.
Pray tell, Lord Boustany, what the hell have you been doing these last three years, other than hanging out with lobbyists in your manor? |
