Thank You, South Dakota
By Charles Cole (11/29/04)
One of the problems inherent in our country’s political system is the incestuous relationship between pork barrel spending and incumbency. Senator John McCain has attempted to attack this problem via campaign finance reform. The emergence of the so-called “527 groups” in this election cycle proves that McCain’s solution doesn’t work.
The cycle goes like this. In order to get elected to office at the federal level (especially Congress), one must raise a ton of money and this often involves pandering to special interest groups who, after all, often serve as cash cows for politicians of both parties and all political stripes. Once elected, especially as concerns members of the House of Representatives (since their election cycle is every two years), the main task becomes assuring oneself of re-election. This forces Congressmen into spending enormous amounts of time and energy attending fund raisers to fatten up their re-election war chests. The other activity they engage in to inoculate themselves against challengers in future elections is good old fashioned pork barrel spending – aka “bringing home the bacon” to their home districts. It’s the age old story of “What are you doing for me?”, including recent variations on the theme such as “What have you done for me lately?”.
This brutal cycle must be broken since it breeds corruption, dishonesty and hypocrisy. Senator McCain’s solution can’t work, since even if politicians were prohibited by law from receiving any funds from any source for any reason, incumbency would still enjoy the huge benefit of pork barrel spending. This aspect of incumbency must be dismantled if honesty, principled behavior and accountability in government are to be reinstated in our system. Far too many Americans have voted exclusively in their own parochial “best interest” for too long, often to the detriment of the greater concerns of the country.
For example, shouldn’t all retired federal government civil servants such as myself be voting straight ticket for Democrats? After all, the Democrat Party panders to my individual self interests. And who isn’t tempted to vote for a local Congressman who will help his local area by inserting into federal spending bills numerous projects and programs of benefit primarily to his home town? This is the great temptation we all face when voting in federal elections.
The result of this system is obvious. Each of 435 Congressional representatives loads local pork into federal legislation, thus allowing all of them to pander to local constituents while escaping accountability for their votes by hiding behind enormous, pork ladened “omnibus” spending bills. This encourages vote swapping and the “let’s make a deal” approach to governance we see at work every day on Capitol Hill. The result is massive federal spending leading to fiscal irresponsibility and, ultimately, to more and more taxes needed to continue to fund the special projects.
A conservative candidate running for Congress has a very steep hill to climb in order to defeat an incumbent – Republican or Democrat. Who wants to vote for someone who asks us to tighten our belts, be fiscally responsible, and eschew the benefits which pork barrel spending brings into our local areas? It’s much easier to vote for the Good Time Charlie who brings home the bacon year after year and who extols his own virtues by telling people that the good times will roll on and on if only he is re-elected!
Within this context, each of us owes a special debt of gratitude to the courageous people of South Dakota for showing us that it is possible to swim up such a mighty stream. They just voted to deprive their home state of the “services”, as it were, of a powerful incumbent – one who not only has brought back millions in pork, but one in a position of leadership in the U.S. Senate whence he could exert almost superhuman influence on the aforementioned appropriations process. They opted instead to send a freshman with no senatorial seniority whatsoever to Washington – one who will find himself on the bottom rung of the influence ladder.
What a wonderful example of courage, honesty and principled behavior! Would that each of us could find such courage in our own states and districts. South Dakotans have shown us the way out of this insane cycle of spending, fundraising, tax increases, and the never-ending upward spiral of wasteful and harmful federal spending. They now have the moral authority to demand that the rest of us do likewise, thereby doing our part in finding a real solution to the embarrassing and shameful outrage which has been going on in Washington far too long!
Taxes may be raised in the future. The federal bureaucracy may continue to grow out of control. The powerful perks of incumbency may continue to taint federal officials and work serious harm on our country. The Social Security system may indeed default someday. But don’t blame South Dakotans. They did their part!
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