Patrick Follows OUR Money

(And sends a good bit of it back to us…)

As noted in this Page One headline story in the Bucks County Courier Times today, Patrick Murphy secured more earmarked funding than any other U.S. House representative from this area.

And as is the usual case, Taxpayers for Common Sense immediately decried what Patrick did, and another group, Citizens Against Government Waste, said the earmarks were an example of “wasteful spending.”

I’ll tell you what; here is a list of the various businesses and non-profits that stand to benefit form the funding Patrick secured, including funding for Lower Makefield and Bristol, PA police, at-risk youth assistance, defense against bioterror, flood plain management, sewer infrastructure in Yardley, medical equipment for St. Luke and St. Mary's hospitals, the I-95/Turnpike connector in Bensalem, PA, and the James A. Michener museum in Doylestown, PA (borrowing from my posted comment, I know). If you consider that to be “wasteful spending,” then so be it. I don’t.

I know some of these watchdog groups don’t want to see government money spent on anything, and they have the right to advocate that way. I just wish that would be identified a little better in these stories.

And this of course will bring up the issue of earmark abuse (unjustified, though, in this case) and a whole new round of Patrick Murphy-bashing by Mike Fitzpatrick’s followers. Fine. They have nothing to offer but criticism – let them rant and look childish; I plan to be here to refute them if necessary.

Besides, if anyone wants to see an example of earmark abuse for real, all they have to do is read this account of how former House Speaker Dennis Hastert used an Illinois trust to purchase real estate near the proposed Prarie Parkway and then secured $207 million in earmarked appropriations for the parkway.

(Yes, I read the clarification from Hastert’s lawyer that the land is in a vicinity of about 5.5 miles from the parkway, though you can’t quantify how much the land would appreciate in value based on the parkway’s development. And I would also argue that the size of the appropriation is pretty eye-popping by itself, waaay out of the range of any of Patrick’s earmarked appropriations.)

Oh, and of all of the House reps who had secured earmarked appropriations for his or her district, guess who came in dead last according to the list in the Courier Times article?

Why, that would be Pancake Joe Pitts, of course, who secured $11 million for a transportation project (better than nothing, I guess – if I were a resident in his district, I would get on Pitts’ case to find out how that money is going to be spent).

And what does Joe have to say in response?

“Earmarks aren't inherently wrong,” said Andrew Cole, Pitts' press secretary. “Unfortunately, a surprisingly high number of members have chosen to abuse it (sic).”

That’s a pretty funny accusation (and grammatically incorrect also) coming from someone belonging to the same political party as Dennis Hastert.

Update 8/13: Is the Courier Times serious here? So…they have a problem with the fact that Patrick didn’t obtain the funding through a more open process of debate as opposed to obtaining it through earmarks? And they’re comparing Patrick’s criticism of Mikey and his vote for funding the teapot museum (and call me crazy, but I don’t believe that North Carolina is part of PA’s 8th congressional district…duuuh) with the earmark Patrick obtained for $100,000 on behalf of the Michener museum (which actually resides in Patrick’s district)?

You know what? If you’re not going to be thankful, Courier Times, then you should shut up and just be grateful in silence, OK?