Jason Chaffetz made a post to his Facebook page in which he made a direct association between earmarks and the $12+ Trillion public debt. This is misleading--to say the least! Earmarks account for less than 1% of government spending but Chaffetz harps on it as if earmark reform is the magic bullet of fiscal discipline in Washington. And yet he says NOTHING about the cost of two wars that is quickly approaching $1 Trillion. Nor does Chaffetz say a word about the tens of billions of dollars spent every year on corporate welfare, public law that keeps getting funding every year without end and no one is saying anything about it because they keep falling for red herrings like earmarks and the stimulus which are easy targets because they scare poor people who can barely comprehend how much money they represent.
Chaffetz refuses to look at the big picture and he's convinced his fanatic followers that little scraps of waste--like earmarks--that fall through the cracks in the government floor are the problem when in reality, we need to stop spilling so much onto the floor to begin with.
If Chaffetz wants to be on bread crumb patrol and pretend that it matters, he can go right ahead and do that. I'd rather see someone in Congress who's got the balls to stand up to corporate welfare recipients and say, "The party's over. Government doesn't exist to keep you in business, that's for you to figure out."
Why isn't Chaffetz fighting against farm subsidies? The federal government has enabled corn to become so cheap that it gets used in so many processed food products that healthy food has become too expensive for average Americans. The result, people are eating crap because it's cheaper than healthy food. Why is it cheaper? Because much of it is repackaged, government subsidized corn. This leads to unhealthy lifestyles, which burdens the healthcare system, driving those costs through the roof.
I support earmark reform but if that's the only bell Chaffetz is going to ring then he needs to wake up because there are bigger and considerably more expensive fish to fry in Washington and if all he's going to do is complain about the Democrats and pontificate over chump change just so he can rile up his uninformed base then he's just as politically impotent as every other two-faced hypocrite in his party.
The real joke is that Chaffetz continues to complain about pocket change while remaining silent on real waste and his minions in his online forum are just as naive as he is to the point that they demand little more from him and think that he's actually trying to change how things work in Washington. They are being conned by a guy who pretends to believe in reform but is just another tool of the corrupt organization that is the GOP. I don't know what's scarier, the thought that he's naive enough to believe his own rhetoric or that his cheerleaders are so willing to accept his smoke and mirrors politicking as reality.
Going after small fish like earmarks while ignoring real government waste is a fool's errand. Real reform is hard work and takes a champion who's smart enough to understand that there's no single solution to a problem as complex and ingrained as government waste; that multiple angles of attack need to be engaged. What's Chaffetz' objection to "Pay as you go"--which contributed in no small part to the budget surpluses we enjoyed at the end of the last century? Why is he fighting against healthcare reform which can also bring government spending down (not to mention the cost of healthcare for every American?
Republicans claim to be the party of fiscal responsibility, values and morality and yet they have demonstrated that they are the most spend-happy, bloodthirsty and bigoted group of hypocrites that dare call themselves patriots. Serving their corporate puppet-masters and having the audacity to say they care more about regular Americans than any other party.
The GOP is only paying lip service to conservative values and that includes Chaffetz who's more interested in being a celebrity than a statesman. The GOP is a sinking ship and they're dragging the Democrats down with them. And I say: So be it! Both parties are beholden to corporate interests at the expense of what's right for the people. Chaffetz is just another political shill who does as he's told by his party handlers. If he gave a damn about changing the way Washington works, then he would support publicly funded elections and get corporations out of politics. Instead he gladly accepts money from corporate interests and embraces the lie that corporations should be treated like people instead of the legal fictions that they are. Chaffetz doesn't give a damn about his constituents. All he wants is their money and their vote and he will defer to the will of his Party and its corporate backers when he's in Washington.
Being a freshman doesn't give him a pass for the lies he has told to his own constituents or the blind loyalty he has given to his party leaders--who haven't been freshmen for a considerable time. Chaffetz is a darling among the right-wing media because he parrots the party line so well. The few positive things I give him credit for simply aren't enough to outweigh the betrayal of party politics that he has so eagerly embraced.
Chaffetz has proven himself to be as much of a pawn of the GOP as any other member. He propagates their lies as gospel truth. He ridicules the current administration while making excuses for the one that preceded it. Instead of proposing practical solutions, he riles up his base with half-truths, insinuations and regurgitation of whatever misinformation he is fed by his party handlers. Chaffetz has embraced the despicable practices of the extreme Right wing of his own free will and has become corrupted by it.
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