So Harry Reid wants to protect Nevada from that big, bad President Obama and his profligate spending, now, does he?
Like many senior lawmakers, Reid opposes abandoning “congressionally directed spending” – the allocation of funding for projects, or earmarks – in favor of leaving the money decisions to officials in government agencies.
“I think I have an obligation to the people of Nevada to do what is important to Nevada, not what is important to some bureaucrat down here with green eyeshades. So I am not going – personally going to back off of bringing stuff back to Nevada,” he said at the news conference.
“I think it’s a tremendous step backwards. It just gives more power to the executive. … And I am not in favor of delegating my constitutional responsibility to the White House,” he added.
The Executive only has the powers that either the Constitution specifically delegates (which includes almost none of these huge federal bureaucracies), or those powers granted to him via statutorily created administrative agencies. And who creates those agencies? Why, it’s Congress, half of which is led by none other than Harry Reid! The same Harry Reid who has written record setting blank checks to that same White House, and who drove through bills for the President’s signature which grants more power to this President than any President has ever had before in the history of the Republic. What a bunch of… malarky.
That same Congressional power works both ways – they have the power to de-fund, de-power, and/or de-exist those agencies. They just chose not to. It’s so much easier to just blame someone else, you see, especially when you’re probably never going to have to be held accountable by the voters again.
This is especially galling coming from the senior Senator from this state, which “boasts” the most “generosity” in terms of giving our tax dollars to the feds without getting much in return. We only see 65¢ of every dollar come back to Nevada – the second worst in the county. Instead of laundering this money through the federal government, Senator, how ’bout just letting us keep more of it here in the first place?
Sadly, this is a bi-partisan excuse. At least Mitch McConnell has reversed himself. I’m glad folks like him are looking nervously over their shoulders, seeing 2012, and getting a little religion. Our government is only of, for, and by the people when the people in charge of it believe seriously that they’re regularly in real danger of getting tossed out on their bums. And that goes just as much – more, even – for elected officials I like.
Stopping earmarks won’t save the budget, of course, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t an important part of the solution. As Glenn Reynolds often notes,
[D]on’t underestimate the importance of earmarks. They’re the gateway drug of corruption and overspending.
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I suppose it’s a good sign that Reid will at least “let” it come to a vote. How good and benevolent of him. But if Harry Reid is serious about both his State’s long term prospects and respecting his Constitutional duties, he’ll join the Republicans in ending not just Congressional earmarks, but their executive branch cousins as well. He has the power to stop what he claims he wants to stop – and isn’t the exercise of that power exactly what he promised us during his entire campaign?
We’ll see how long I can hold my breath.
