Pork: Good or bad?
Jib has an useful perspective on pork, which is that my "pork" is your "necessary project".
He's right that we all have to trim the pork from our own plates. See this post for an example of how not to always have your hand out for so-called "government money". For one thing, always remember that there is no such thing as government money; it's our money, that we worked hard for, that the government takes every year to redistribute as it sees fit.
Some of it's good (locally, things like parks and schools) and nationally (highways and defense), but a lot of it is wasted, partly because the money is being spent by people other than those who earned it. It's always easier to spend someone else's money. Almost by definition, any money sent back to the states by the feds is going to have a certain level of pork in it.
In this post I encouraged all of us to contact our elected officials. Here's what I've done so far:
I contacted Rep. Sensenbrenner asking him to become the first congressman to sign on to the "Commit to Cuts" effort of N.Z. Bear and Glenn Reynolds. I talked with the mayor of New Berlin and learned we don't get much federal money (which would be channeled through the state and county), which is good. Also learned from the Mayor that our new library was built entirely with city funds (a bond was taken out), and that a local "Friends of the Library" group is having fund raisers to try to pay back the city for the entire cost (which would be amazing, as it was $9 million). That is what I love to hear. Talked to the New Berlin police officer in charge of D.A.R.E. and learned that they get almost zero tax dollars and have to do fund raisers to get the money they need. Good. I would hate to see any of my tax dollars wasted on D.A.R.E... but that's another post.
This little exercise in citizenship has been interesting, partly because I've actually gotten some good news from my local officials. But I haven't yet talked to county or state reps, nor heard back from Rep. Sensenbrenner yet.
Who have you contacted so far?
He's right that we all have to trim the pork from our own plates. See this post for an example of how not to always have your hand out for so-called "government money". For one thing, always remember that there is no such thing as government money; it's our money, that we worked hard for, that the government takes every year to redistribute as it sees fit.
Some of it's good (locally, things like parks and schools) and nationally (highways and defense), but a lot of it is wasted, partly because the money is being spent by people other than those who earned it. It's always easier to spend someone else's money. Almost by definition, any money sent back to the states by the feds is going to have a certain level of pork in it.
In this post I encouraged all of us to contact our elected officials. Here's what I've done so far:
This little exercise in citizenship has been interesting, partly because I've actually gotten some good news from my local officials. But I haven't yet talked to county or state reps, nor heard back from Rep. Sensenbrenner yet.
Who have you contacted so far?
posted by M.E. @ 11:59 AM
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