United Liberty

The Ron Paul faithful are going to disagree with me, but I’m disappointed that the good doctor continues to engage and support pork barrel spending by voting against an amendment sponsored by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) that would have banned earmarks in a spending bill:

Paul was one of only two “nay” votes on his side of the aisle against an amendment to HR 3791, the Fire Grants Reauthorization Act of 2009, offered by his fellow Constitutional conservator, Flake.

The only Republican lined up with Paul  - and against Flake - was that egregious earmarker, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), the Ranking Member on Appropriations. Like his Showbiz namesake, the collegial Lewis’ look could pass for that of a 70’s “Nite Club” act and he certainly knows how to work a room, but he’s dead serious about defending Appropriators’ perks and the practice of earmarking.

Flake’s amendment was modest.

It merely seeks to ensure a competitive, need-based process for parceling out the firefighting grants authorized by the bill. The mechanism was aptly judicious: it enforces the bill’s ban on earmarking. If opened to earmarks, Flake fears that influential Members – like Lewis – could divert dollars to their districts, away from regions with less congressional clout, but in more dire need of an occasional emergency blaze dousing, admittedly not unlike the maverick Flake’s sometimes-parched Southwestern home base. Of course, and more significantly, once Members start horse trading in earmarks, the price tag tends to swell even beyond the bloated figure originally authorized.

Again, Paul stuck to his guns and stood by his controversial defense of earmarking, and let the red light glow next to his name on the big board above the Speaker’s Chair. His office told me, via an email statement, that Paul maintains that “that all spending should be earmarked as this provides the greatest transparency [and]…gives constituents an opportunity for input regarding how their tax dollars are spent.” The statement paid obligatory lip service to “drastically” reducing spending.

That’s disappointing, however, like Kevin from The Liberty Papers, I do take issue with the author of the column claiming that Dr. Paul has been silent on the health care issue. Looking through his most recent Texas Straight Talk columns, I see at least three out of five that are about health care.

That doesn’t change the fact that Paul is wrong on earmarks. I wrote a column last year on earmarks and the lack of sunlight on the process, as well as the unconstitutionality of it. James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, make the argument against pork after vetoing the Bonus Bill of 1817. In his veto message, Madison wrote, “”The legislative powers vested in Congress are specified and enumerated in the eighth section of the first article of the Constitution, and it does not appear that the power proposed to be exercised by the bill is among the enumerated powers, or that it falls by any just interpretation with the power to make laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution those or other powers vested by the Constitution in the Government of the United States.”

Dr. Paul, being the constitutonalist that he is, should stop defending earmarking and assist Rep. Flake in eliminating this corrupt practice.