Fimian calls for a ban on Earmarks
By Krystle Weeks | Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 | PoliticsKeith Fimian, candidate for Congress in the 11th District, called on both Rep. Gerry Connolly and his opponent in the Republican primary, Pat Herrity to join him in supporting a complete ban on earmarks. In a statement released today by Fimian, he mentioned that many residents in the 11th District oppose earmarks. During Connolly’s term in Congress, he has submitted 57 earmark requests. Meanwhile, Fimian stated that his Republican opponent, Herrity has not taken a stance on earmark requests.
“I call on Gerry Connolly and Pat Herrity to join in me in swearing off earmarks and supporting legislation in Congress to ban earmarks completely and permanently,” Fimian said.
“Earmarks may only make up a small portion of the federal budget, but they are a major reason wasteful, bloated spending bills pass Congress,” Fimian said. “Career politicians believe if they bring enough earmarks back to their district they can secure re-election—even if it is at the expense of future generations. Out of control spending is a serious threat to our way of life, and Congress is addicted to spending. Absent drastic measures, we will not control reckless federal spending. We must ban earmarks.”
“Gerry Connolly has submitted 57 earmark requests for more than $3 billion. He clearly believes in using taxpayer dollars to purchase his re-election,” Fimian said. “And the fact that Gerry Connolly brazenly submits earmark requests for his campaign contributors makes him a poster boy for the potentially corrupting power of earmarks and another reason they must be banned. Despite his terrible record on earmarks, it isn’t too late for Representative Connolly to change course and join me in opposing them moving forward.”
“I also call on Pat Herrity to join me in supporting a complete ban. Herrity needs to take a stand on this issue. Voters will have to make a choice, and they deserve to know if they are voting for another Gerry Connolly when it comes to earmarks and wasteful spending,” Fimian said. “11th District voters overwhelmingly oppose earmarks. They want to fire Gerry Connolly, but they don’t want to replace him with Gerry Connolly-lite.
This race is shaping up to be extremely competitive. With the current economic situation, there is a great need to eliminate earmark requests and tighten government spending.
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Growing up in Maryland typically does not yield a Republican. Fortunately, Krystle Weeks was one of the lucky few booted to the Commonwealth for her staunch conservative views. From an early age, she has been debating politics, and since 2006, she has been involved here in the Commonwealth helping Republican candidates to victory. Aside from politics, Krystle is a runner and a dynamite cook. You can email her here. Krystle also blogs at Crystal Clear Conservative and Charm Offensive Cooking.
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9 Responses to "Fimian calls for a ban on Earmarks"
Its amateur hour in Republican politics again.
What are earmarks? They are then you specify funding for a specific item.
Does anyone actually realize that if earmarks are banned, we would simply allocate funds to a department or program and then have to leave the detailed spending up to an unelected official?
I’m all for getting rid of stupid spending, but to make it impossible to earmark anything is just ignorant and empty rhetoric that shows how woefully unprepared these people are to really govern.
Perhaps we should create concrete definitions of what an earmark can be and when they can be used, but taking away the legislatures ability to specify where funds are spent is clearly unconstitutional.
Chris is close on the issue.
What banning earmarks would do is leave specific spending decisions to bureaucrats. Would you rather have elected officials or bureaucrats making the call?
I would say that there are different categories of earmarks. Some may be good. Some specifically allocate some funds already in the budget and some add to the spending. Even allocating funds already in the budget can be detrimental. Say the DOD asks for $500 million to upgrade gate security on military installations and they have a specific list of which bases most need upgrades. But then a politician decides to divert some of those funds to his district to improve gate security for bases in his district and create some temporary jobs. Sounds great, except now bases that had a more urgent need for security upgrades don’t get them. Sometimes it is better for the bureaucrat to decide.
As odious is the practice of earmarking, even more alarming is the 36 to 50 trillion dollar tsunami of entitlements coming our way. Earmarks are a drop in the bucket in the face of this. How good of a spending control is anti earmark legislation when the body that passes it can quite simply overturn it?
Gerry Connolly is an unctuous critter who oozes quite nicely into the culture of Washington. He just voted for the Mother of All Entitlements in the so called “Health Care Reform.” He is reliable supplicant of the Speaker and Majority leader voting for whatever their pet legislation of the moment happens to be. If he is not gotten rid of in this cycle, when will we ever get him out?
With Gerry Connolly in office only doing what the democrat leadership and union bosses tell him to do, nothing is going to be done about this coming entitlement tsunami at least from the 11th district. This is also a national security issue when one considers who are the holders of our debt.
We need to be careful about political stunts and gimmicks in the upcoming campaign. We have serious challenges not the least of which is removing the current incumbent of the 11th district from his seat in Congress.
Chris’s point here is spot on. The issue isn’t earmarks. The issue is what the earmarks are being spent on. If we were to completely ban all earmarks, the money that would have been earmarked would not disappear, it would simply go, unearmarked, to whatever agency or bureau the Appropriations Committee decides it should go to. Once it hits that agency, it gets parceled out – how? Not through a democratic process led by an elected official who can be held accountable for what he or she does, but by either a career civil servant – a bureaucrat – or a political appointee who is not accountable to voters.
Is that a better system? I don’t think so.
Earmarks are fine when they are for valid programs that government should be undertaken. I don’t have a problem with an earmark for a road that needs to be repaired, a bridge to somewhere legitimate, or some other local project that needs the funds. Where I get upset with earmarks is when I see them spent on the Joe Blow Democrat Airport in East Bumblefrak servicing 9 people including Congressman Democrat. That’s where the money piles up and where it is wasted.
Fimian needs to understand how the system works if he’s ever going to be able to reform it. If he doesn’t get that the Republican “ban” on earmarks Boehner put out was more political than substantive, I don’t know what he’s thinking.
Herrity won’t take a pledge to ban earmarks because he is an earmark. Tom Davis’ personal earmark.
Everyone who follows this race knows that Herrity is just a stand-in for Davis and the “ancien regime.” They had their chance. Look what they gave us. A huge deficit, a pile of unfunded mandates and future debts our grandchildren will never be able to pay off. Their time is past.
Jean, Herrity’s spending plan already calls for a moratorium on earmarks. Not that Fimian supporters ever let facts stand in the way of a talking point.
[...] called on his GOP primary opponent Pat Herrity to take a stand on earmarks. It was reported by Krystle Weeks at Bearing Drift and by me over at examiner.com. Fimian even went as far as to call Herrity [...]
The times – they are a changing.
Fimian is now cash even with Connolly – it is now down to the votes.
And the latest polls show Fimian ahead, but don’t let up. We haven’t crossed the finish line yet.
I have lived in the 11th District for over two decades. It is a true delight to see the ever arrogant Gerry Connolly finally on his way out.
The 11th District has, like the rest of the nation, awoken and said “what have we done” and are getting ready to undo this mistake before it gets any worse.
The choice is simple – more of the same nightmare with Gerry (and have no doubt he promises more of the same) or a re-awkening of the American dream and a new begining with Keith Fimian.
11th district it is just a nightmare. It is time to wake up – time to end it. You can do it, but only if you vote on November 2nd.
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