'That's Bullshit,' the Congressman Said
When he’s not crusading against those evil rural electric co-ops and denying Nashville its fair share of pork-barrel spending, Congressman Jim Cooper is railing against the national debt. His not particularly original idea to save us from ourselves? Let’s form a bipartisan commission to decide how to cut spending! We can all agree on that, can’t we? Bipartisanship is a good thing, right?
We are saddened to report that yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee shot down Cooper’s proposal by a vote of 32-31 after—you guessed it—a partisan pissing match. The story from CongressDaily:
The debate was turned up a notch by Rep. Steven Rothman, D-N.J., who argued that Republican economic policies, including tax cuts for the wealthy, are responsible for turning a budget surplus in 2000 into a deficit of about $317 billion during the first eight months of FY08, according to CBO."Take responsibility for the economic philosophy that you espouse," said Rothman, who added that the upcoming presidential election will be a referendum on Republican economic policies.
Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, was not impressed by Rothman's argument.
"That's bullshit," he responded.
Later, Simpson, who voted to attach the provision to the appropriations bill, explained that Rothman's remarks were partisan and distracted from an attempt to seriously debate an important matter.
"We were having a legitimate debate about how to solve the issue ... and Rothman gets up and turns it into a partisan debate. ... That doesn't solve the problem and what we have to do is solve the problem and get away from all the partisan horseshit; that is why I said it," Simpson said.
Does this mean we can have our pork back?
Update: This is what happens when your congressman stops bringing home the bacon. He has too much time on his hands. He winds up hacking into somebody's website and the next thing he knows he's under investigation by the FBI.
Comments
Does this mean we can have our pork back?
That's really rich considering it was Jim Cooper's pork that gave David Lipscomb University some federal $ for their parking garage.
I like Jim Cooper just fine most of the time, especially considering the alternative. But sometimes he infuriates me.
Posted 06/26/2008 at 01:53:40 PM"That's really rich considering it was Jim Cooper's pork that gave David Lipscomb University some federal $ for their parking garage."
Beale, that pork for Lipscomb (along with 2.5 million OTHER dollars at DLU) was from LAST year's earmarks for this year's budget.
Cooper's grandstanding was announced in budget planning for 2009. Basically, there was a phony vote in March in which those politicians who needed political cover voted to abolish earmarks, and everyone else voted to keep them. Cooper seems to be the only one who intends to keep his promise, and ensure that Nashville fails to recoup its income tax payouts with earmarks for "pork," i.e., badly needed infrastructure funds. If he represented a district that had more revenue streams for local government, his Dudley Do-Right posture might be appreciated, but we're in a fiscal straightjacket and Rep. Jim is leaving money on the table.
Posted 06/26/2008 at 02:51:50 PMMaybe someone will finally grow the balls to put up a primary challenge against Jim C. by 2010. How about Steve Cohen, if he loses out to a Ford stooge in the 9th?
Posted 06/26/2008 at 03:45:32 PM