Today, I was honored by the Club for Growth with the Defender of Economic Freedom Award. 49 Members of the House and 6 Senators received the award as well.

This award is granted to those members who demonstrate a strong commitment to economic freedom and free-market principals.  In order to receive this award, reciepients must have earned at least a 90% rating on the Club for Growth’s most recent scorecard. 

For your convenience I have listed the winners below.

For Tax Year 2006

Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), released its Monthly Budget Review, and not to my surprise it stated “The federal government incurred a deficit of $268 billion for the first nine months of fiscal year 2008, CBO estimates, $148 billion more than the shortfall recorded during the same period in 2007.”

CBO also estimates that about $79 billion of that change is a direct result of the Economic Stimulus Act that passed the House at the beginning of this year.

We are now seeing the direct effect from reckless spending without reductions elsewhere.  I have said it before and I will say it now, both Republicans and Democrats need to understand that if we continue on our current course we are on a collision course for the highest debt in American history.

This past week in Congress, we considered a bill that that would try to sue our way to lower gas prices as well as another bill to create subsidies for only federal employees to take public transportation to work.

All I can say is are you kidding me? 

The cartoon below has a greater meaning after this week.

An AP article that was published yesterday, says a lot about the pervasive spending and earmarking culture that exists here in Washington D.C.

Frank Cushing, former Staff Director for the House Committee on Appropriations under Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-CA), and now a lobbyist for the National Group stated in the article,

"I know a bunch of members that if you go in to see them, somewhere in the conversation they somehow say, 'Well, we were looking through our list of campaign contributors and didn't happen to see you there…is there a quid pro quo? No, not directly, but you'd have to be pretty dense not to figure it out."

Another lobbyist who declined to be identified said:

"You can ask any lobbyist in town. You bring a new client in to see a member and everything is nice-nice and you have a good meeting and everybody's exchanging business cards, within 48 hours, the clients and their lobbyist - me - will get a fundraising phone call."

Obviously, this is a bi-partisan problem, but this sort of devil may care attitude is ridiculous and needs to stop.  Taxpayers are sick and tired of this subversive and counterproductive brand of politics.

Recently, the Contra Costa Times in California published an article about Chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor, and judging by the title, Rep. George Miller Delivers Millions For Campaign Contributor, you can be sure he was none to happy having his exploits exposed.

The article draws attention to a relationship between Mr. Miller and defense contractor SecuriMetrics, Inc, which is located in his district.  The article goes on to detail the $4.6 million in federal funding Miller has managed to secure for the company. 

Furthermore, Since 2004, Mr. Miller who is a staunch opponent of the war on terror, has also received & accepted over $16,090 in campaign contributions from current and past executives of SecuriMetrics. Meanwhile, he continued to acquire earmarks for SecuriMetrics.  I think you can draw your own conclusion.

Moreover, this money is being used for product development; I bet you didn’t know the money coming out of your paychecks would be going towards SecuriMetrics product development division…George Miller has seen a return on investment...have you?

Sadly, this story has become par for the course in Congress.  It is ridiculous that Members of Congress can send taxpayer dollars to their districts in exchange for lucrative campaign contributions. Despite what some of my colleagues may believe, they are not money machines and I am intent on putting this practice to an end.

I find that often times political cartoons can express a sentiment just as strongly as words do, and occasionally I post them here for you to see. 

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this is worth at least 50 billion more…



Published in National Journal’s CongressDailyAM on June 9, 2008.