Hypocrite, I think it is:
According to an analysis by the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense, Mississippi has won the earmark contest in the omnibus budget package.
Mississippi Republican Sen. Thad Cochran led his colleagues by raking in more than $470 million in 204 earmarks. Mississippi’s junior Republican, Roger Wicker, pulled in more than $390 million. The totals can’t be added together because the figure includes earmarks each received solo and with others, so the same earmark could be in both senators’ column. Cochran, on his own, pulled in roughly $76 million and Wicker brought home $4 million.
Cochran’s $76 million ranks him sixth among solo earmarkers. (Earmarks can be requested individually, with other members of Congress or along with the president.)
Senate Democrats and Republican ate roughly the same amount from the government trough on a solo basis, although Democrats have one and half times as many members. Democratic members secured about $677 million in individual earmarks; Republicans brought home $669 million. Those solo figures, however, don’t tell the entire story, because about six billion more was requested by groups of lawmakers.
I guess it is not quite time for the Republicans to break out those dusty “Fiscal Conservatism” foam fingers. Not only are earmarks less than 2% of the total omnibus bill, but Republicans are responsible for half of them (and this does not even take into account how much those states pay in taxes as compared to how much they receive nor does it note the fact that the minority party- Republicans- has a higher percentage of earmark per Senator). No doubt Michael Steele and Bobby Jindal will take to the airwaves to point out that Republicans have still “lost their way.”
Michael
[GOPer from the South shouts] – "Stop the Porkulus! WOLVERINES!"
[drops to stage whisper]- "Oh, and make sure you get this list of items into the thing….."
Incertus
Isn’t Mississippi one of the worst taker states when it comes to how much they get back compared to the dollars they pay in federal taxes? That’s been the case for the last, oh, ten to fifteen years at the very least. Without federal spending, Mississippi would be even more fucked up than it is (which is hard to believe, I know).
El Cid
Also, these are among the courageous leaders working to make sure that the only government assistance and tax breaks going to auto companies are those going to the foreign-owned automakers on Southern soil.
The Republican South is the most heavily federally subsidized region of the nation, followed closely by the Republican West, and then of course Alaska.
But they’re for freedom! States rights! No to socialism! No to welfare! Let the auto industry fail! Right to work!
El Cid
Also, these are among the courageous leaders working to make sure that the only government assistance and tax breaks going to auto companies are those going to the foreign-owned automakers on Southern soil.
The Republican South is the most heavily federally subsidized region of the nation, followed closely by the Republican West, and then of course Alaska.
But they’re for freedom! States rights! No to s0cial_sm! No to welfare! Let the auto industry fail! Right to work!
MattF
Note that the hypocrisy works both ways– if there’s any state in the Union that is in dire need of investment, it’s Mississippi. One may wonder: if Cochrane is so ready to sacrifice his Republican principles for the sake of his constituents, he might as well be a Democrat, and not have to lie about it.
Comrade Stuck
Mississippi is one of the poorest, if not the poorest state in the union. If not for the productive New England Trotski states sending regular welfare checks to it, and the other bubba southern states, they would only have their "evil liberal" rhetoric to feed themselves with.
Fat redneck #1 Haley Barbour would be ruthlessly hunted by hungry peasants with pitchforks prodding his porkulous ass to do something. Hypocrite is the right word, unless there is a stronger one I don’t know about.
Michael
Those patriots love America more than you do – which is why they use their local tax dollars to subsidize foreign car manufacturers to beat out those Yankee companies, all while using hated Yankee tax dollars to subsidize their own lifestyles. Its a twofer!
Not only that, but they get to bitch about diluting "their" share of Yankee tax dollars by doing anything other than maintaining the status quo.
Country First!
Harkonnen/Palin 2012 – "Because Solutions Don’t Matter"
Brian J
Maybe it is easier to simply endlessly repeat the claim, "If the Republicans didn’t want this spending to help their districts, they should have rejected it." After all, wouldn’t it be true? Wouldn’t they reject this spending if it didn’t serve some purpose?
JL
The Repubs aren’t going to vote for the budget anyway. Why not just get rid of the repub earmarks?
TheFountainHead
I, for one, welcome our new Southern Socialist leaders.
TheFountainHead
I, for one, welcome our new Southern Soc ialist leaders.
Josh Hueco
Besides, you don’t know where those fingers have been.
No Blood for Hubris
Like there was something wrong with the notion of dragging the country kicking and screaming into the great bathtub of bankruptcy, throwing it in, and sitting on ourselves until we all drown?
Sheesh.
Davis X. Machina
Look at it from their point of view — it’s reparations. It is after all the only region to have suffered under foreign occupation.
El Cid
BTW, I thought the spam filter was filtering out "social_st", and I never thought of "cial_s" as the actual spam word.
Brian J
@JL:
It would be rather amusing to eliminate them all and then watch the Republicans shit a brick trying to get them back, wouldn’t it?
Ruth
King of the Hypocrites, Sen. McAyn yesterday spewed on the floor about the appropriations bill, which he was instrumental in putting together during the last Congress, being an indication that President Obama wasn’t providing that ‘change’ he won on.
Except he got most of the earmark descriptions wrong.
see http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/02/AR2009030202465.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Zifnab
@JL: That’s what I completely don’t get. What leverage do these people have when we all know how they’re going to vote long before they pull the levers. If none of the Mississippi delegation will support this bill or any other, why are they continuing to feed at the government trough?
My only assumption can be that Mississippi is so damn poor that they naturally get the lion’s share of things like health care funds, state infrastructural spending, and public works dollars because they couldn’t pay for anything otherwise.
I feel like I’m getting lectured on fiscal responsibility by the drunk bum on the corner. Bless his heart, you want to help him out, but he keeps swinging his whiskey bottle at you and calling you a god damn commie.
TheFountainHead
From a WSJ Op Ed that doesn’t appear to have a byline.
/facedesk
/facedesk
/facedesk
Comrade Stuck
@TheFountainHead:
They are experts at playing the bait and switch victim card.
Michael
How dare you talk about Baron Harkonnen that way.
The Grand Panjandrum
@Davis X. Machina:
Yeah. They better throw Michael D and all the other Canadians out of Atlanta before its too late.
DFH no.6
Michael:
Limbaugh = Baron Harkonnen.
Damn, that’s it exactly!
And hearing conservatives cry "Porkulus!" while Limbaugh/Harkonnen has become their de facto leader is, well, I’m not quite sure how to put it, but there is just no self-awareness over there. None. At. All.
plus C
Rush sent Steele to time-out, so he might not be out to play for awhile.
Porkulus fka Media Browski
Palin/Limbaugh 2012: Porkulus, it’s what’s for dinner!
gbear
@El Cid:
Imagine all the frustrated wingnuts who haven’t figured that out yet and are thinking it’s all part of a great liberal conspiracy to silence their voices. It must suck to have your incredible new sure-win talking point go straight into moderation.
Oh, and also: McCain is REALLY super incredibly mad about those earmarks.
Cat Lady
OT, but does Pat Buchanan have a home?
Michael
Nah – Palin has to take the second spot. No Trve Conservative could ever accept a woman as No.1, except in a caretaker/placemarker capacity.
Especially in an administration with Harkonnen in it.
OT, but did anybody notice kudlow last night describing investor dollars as "votes" on government policy?
I like that – the investor class gets extra say in magnifying the top end of the status quo because it is voting with dollars – unregulated, of course…..
bootlegger
Add to this the Republican governor publicly refusing some of the stimulus money because, and I kid you not "Mississippi doesn’t do unemployment welfare that way." Send in the Carpetbaggers!
Incertus
@bootlegger: Nobody does cognitive dissonance quite like southern Republicans. It’s practically performance art at this point.
Svensker
@Comrade Stuck:
That image has made my entire day happy.
Tsulagi
Yeah, about the same time Winky stops shopping on other peoples’ dime to say “Thanks, but no thanks” to stimulus money headed to Alaska.
TR
Not sure. He acts like he’s in one, though.
Church Lady
@zinfab #18: DING-DING-DING, we have a winner. Mississippi has a very small upper class, almost no middle class, and an absolutely astronomical amount of poor. You know how it’s estimated that 40% of Americans pay no income tax? I’d guess you could possibly push that figure up to 60-65% in Mississippi.
@cat lady #27: My husband is convinced that Pat has an apartment in MSNBC’s studios. Right before he’s supposed to go on, some PA goes in and slaps him awake, shouting "Pat, you’re on."
Church Lady
Per stats from the 2000 census, Mississippi has the lowest per capita income tax payment ($1,385), followed closely by West Virginia ($1,439). These figures were before the EITC was applied. Lots of poverty in both places.
Farley
@Michael: You really think so?
Because I was thinking "Palin/Bachman 2012, MILFavericks for America!"
Porkulus fka Media Browski
@Michael: You have a point there, but I don’t know that he has the courage to run in a primary. Losing would interfere with his narcissism.
KCinDC
OT: "Wealthy Idiots Meet Idiot Reporter". How does someone manage to make over $250,000 a year while being so innumerate? And how does an innumerate reporter get assigned to write articles on economics?
Zifnab
@KCinDC: How stupid could you learn to report if someone offered you $250k / year to be a complete asshat?
KCinDC
Zifnab, I doubt the reporter makes that much, if she’s not among the on-screen talent.
Church Lady
@KCinDC – Maybe they are reacting more to the reduction in the amount of allowable deductions? That could possibly explain it. Also, hasn’t a FICA surcharge on incomes over $250K been floated? Might explain a little of the reaction, right or wrong.
Rick Taylor
Republicans like to play up the pleasant fantasy that there’s huge amounts of pork in government, and so we can have our cake and eat it too, cutting taxes without making difficult decisions about where to cut, and they can pretend to be fiscal conservatives. Whenever the rubber hits the road and they have to spell out where the cuts will come from, the fantasy dissipates; that’s how we have record deficits after six years of Republican domination. And that’s how after screaming about all the pork in the stimulus bill, when it came actually cut something they chose food stamps and education. Now that they’re out of power, they have the luxury once again of fancying themselves to be fiscal conservatives who are ready to cut all that pork they know is in the budget without specifying just how they’ll do it.
thomas
I think it’s time for a constitutional amendment that says no state gets back more than 110% of what it sends in.
Oh, and the next time they want to succeed, let them go! Puleeze!!
KCinDC
Church Lady, those still wouldn’t explain it. These idiots think that if they make $250,000 they’re going to be taking home less than they would it they made $249,999.
Rick Taylor
Via Atrios, a funny video on the scary rhetoric of opponents of the employee free choice act.
chrome agnomen
republicans never lost their way. they know exactly where they are. it’s their way that is lost.
Dennis-SGMM
I’m sure that Rush Limbaugh will explain it to us – just as soon as he’s through bending Michael Steele over his desk.
Indylib
@KCinDC:
Hopefully these idiots have accountants, cuz they obviously don’t have the wherewithal to make their own financial decisions. How the fuck do they manage to make so much money every year and remain so ignorant?
Dennis-SGMM
Moron the media: today WaPo managed to publish an article carping about the cost of the AIG bailout without mentioning Gramm-Leach-Bliley or the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, both of which were instrumental in allowing AIG to go so far out on a limb.
Rick Taylor
@KCinDC:
I’m not sure that’s true. I think they resent the higher tax rate so much they don’t even want to earn a single dollar at that higher tax rate because it’s not worth it to them, and they so resent paying a higher marginal rate for even one dollar. *shrug* It’s an ugly attitude, but who cares? If they want to work less, and are lucky enough to be able to do so, let them. We’re in a recession; there’s a glut of people looking to work, and who will be more than happy to take up the slack.
zzyzx
@Rick Taylor: Just yesterday I heard a WA conservative talk show host accuse Olympia of being filled with scam artists because they were trying to cut services people wanted in order to balance the budget instead of going after the minor programs he hated. One of the top arguments I wish Democrats would make more is to say that we have two choices – increase taxes or cut programs people like and force the choice.
Church Lady
@Rick Taylor – I love it! The concept of increasing employment by going John Galt is sort of mind blowing.
Paul Maud'dib
@DFH no.6: If Rush is Baron Harkonnen, then the Obamamessiah is Dr. Yueh.
Obama is a traitor to his country as Dr. Yueh is traitor to the House Atreides.