Is this our resting place going forward?

Posted

In interesting story popped up on of of the news feeds that I tend to peruse regularly, and was evidently picked up by virtually every state news group across the country.

The headline itself is designed, as most are in the virtual world, to encourage the reader to click on it and read more of the story.

Well, kind of. Clicking is enough...reading, meh.

“U.S. House GOP wants spending cuts — and also $10B in home-state earmarks” is what it said.

Depending upon your political leaning, you likely had one of two reactions to the headline.

It was either “Well, how can those #$*% say they are cutting spending, but asking for...more spending?”

Or, “Sure, but what did the Democrats spend?

You may have heard that there is a pressing matter before Congress, to allow the country to continue to pay its bills.

Evidently its kind of a big thing.

So, as the story points out, Republican representatives - many of them members of the ‘Freedom Caucus’ - had put in for more than $10 billion in spending earmarked for their states.

They were the group that held the speakership of the House captive until they received concessions. And they were taking that power out for a test drive.

A total of 5,067 requests were made, with 1,864 of those requests being from Republicans, for that amount. Which leaves 3,203 other requests made by Democrat representatives.

Inside the numbers, the 3,203 requests totaled $9.4 billion. That’s just under $3 million per Democratic request, compared to nearly $5.5 million for the Republicans.

For the record, neither S.D.’s Dusty Johnson nor Speaker Kevin McCarthy submitted requests.

My question is why?

Why are the people in charge of the nation’s purse strings requesting $19.3 billion in additional discretionary spending for special projects while they are fighting over how to make cuts ?

Is this our resting place now?

That personal wants of a few are able to hold the rest of the House hostage to get their way?

In nearly every aspect of federal government it kind of feels like we are begged to support officials and candidates, solely on the basis of “I’m not as bad as the other guy...”

I think the only thing upon which we can all agree...is that the country is divided politically.

From my perspective, that division emanates from Washington, D.C., just like ripples from a stone dropped in a pond.