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>>But as PJ O'Rourke - our modern Mark Twain - has said "When legislation controls buying and selling the first thing bought and sold will be legislators."
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>The passage of each bill is a matter of buying and selling. Stick that little project in for me and in the next bill I'll sign off on yours. The bill only passes because those capable of selling their vote do so. When pork barrels are stopped (if ever), it will interesting to see how many votes a bill actually gets. It will also stop almost all projects at the state level. What will the govt do with all those extra tax dollars?
Just a guess, but I think "Give it back to the people whose money it is" won't make the top ten list.
The biggest government reform would be to take out all earmarks. The idea that the Federal government collects money into a common fund and then doles it out for projects at the state and local level is so absurd it can only be defended by inertia and incumbency.
I is the one singel reform that would sway my vote toward any presidential candidate I thought had a realistic way to move in that direction.
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
