A Second Hand Conjecture

Chronicle of the Conspiracy
This is a good thing. She fights waste wherever she finds it.

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For a couple of years now, Porkbusters has been on the warpath against wasteful spending in Congress, and although it has had some notable successes (e.g. the “Bridge to Nowhere”), it’s mostly been treading water. The latest battle, dubbed a “Blogger Revolt” by the Club for Growth (via Instapundit) was ignited by the appointment of Rep. Jo Bonner (R-AL) to the Appropriations Committee, passing over Porkbuster hero, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ). For Redstate, Robert Bluey writes:

Bonner may talk a good game when it comes to earmark reform. However, his record is abysmal. The three-term Republican scored just 2% on the Club for Growth’s 2007 RePORK Card, meaning he voted for just one of the 50 anti-pork amendments offered by conservatives. Andy Roth notes that’s the same score as liberal Reps. Steny Hoyer, Bill Jefferson and James Moran. Flake, on the other hand, not only supported all 50, but he introduced many himself.

The National Taxpayers Union scorecard paints an even worse picture. While Flake was earning A’s consistently, Bonner was receiving B’s and C’s. Flake scored 92% in 2006, whereas Bonner had a pathetic 55% on NTU’s scorecard for all tax, spending, trade and regulatory votes.

Clearly the Republican leadership is not any more interested in controlling pork spending than the Democrats. Of course, one of the fundamental reasons for the reluctance is summed up in this statement from Rep. Bonner (my emphasis):

One of my many goals in Congress is to ensure the people of south Alabama get a significant return on their investment in the federal government (taxes). I am here to offer assistance in helping — where appropriate — to return to the people of the First District the tax dollars they send to Washington.

Bonner’s goal is quite common in Congress, a fact noted not just by N.Z. Bear (who cited the quote above), but also by the man who appointed Bonner and sent N.Z. Bear this hypocritical email regarding the announcement (my emphasis):

Jo Bonner fully supports the GOP efforts to put a moratorium on earmarking and the reforms Republicans have unilaterally adopted.

This announcement contrasts sharply with some stunning comments appearing today in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch made by a Missouri Democrat who is apparently stuck in the 1990s. “I intend on asking for more and a higher dollar amount,” said Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis. “This is a return on the taxpayers’ investment,” added Clay, expressing a view widely shared in the Capitol.

And there’s the rub. No matter how much politicians say they want to cut pork, the vast majority of them will never follow through, for to do so means political suicide. They are sent to Washington to get back the money paid by taxing their constituents. In essence, the federal government sucks up as much money as it can through taxes, and then congressmen duke it out on the floor, in committees, and in back-room dealing to see who gets the biggest piece of the pie. It’s rather like a giant game of Hungry Hungry Hippos where the taxpayers feed the trough, and their elected officials are the hippos eagerly gulping down as many marbles of largess as they can. That’s how the game is played. That’s the way the system is designed. Until it’s changed, there is little that can be or will be effective in changing the spending behavior of our congressmen.

Considering the above, would Jeff Flake have been a better choice for the Appropriations Committee? Of course! But with so many marbles rolling around the Congressional trough, how likely is it that someone against manning the hippos will be given control of the game? I guess another way of saying this is that pork-barrel spending is not a personnel problem, it’s s structural problem. Change the structure, and then you’ll be able to solve the problem.

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