49 Comments

This insane game played daily by members of congress has been utilized by our representatives for decades to line their own pockets and assure their re-election. This must stop. no legislation should be allowed to include anything that is not directly related to the primary context of the bill. Pork is no longer acceptable and any member who chooses to ignore this should be immediately censured and removed from their seat.

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I note the the late great Tom Coburn was cited, but not that he tried EVERY year to point out the waste. Rand Paul picked up the ball, and a couple of others, since.

Dr. Tom Coburn, MD was a Republican from Oklahoma. The state everyone wants to insult, and the state that is consistently RED.

I don't know where James Lankford, the lame brain, came from, but we'll get him out of the Senate next year for an America First candidate.

Meanwhile, our governor, whose Ed Dept put the Bible back into the classroom, is being lied about for trying to put students on track for THEIR success with some brainstorming. All of a sudden, the national media says he dictated or legislated mandatory paths from HS to college, trade schools, or the military. Somehow, this is a bad thing that never happened. Musing or supporting ideas is not dictating them or legislating them. The Gov can't legislate.

And the Legislature can't raise taxes at all, without a vote of the people. And OK is a balanced budget state, so of course, it did not lock us down like other states.

And geez, isn't it nice our government can't lock us out of making money because they would have to shut down without the tax revenue.

Wake up America. You can't give them a limitless credit card and keep your freedom. OK is proof of how this needs to work, in some ways.

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Correct. My comment may be obscurely phrased. “No harmless cuts” = unnecessary, wasteful political pork. It’s ludicrous to suggest in a budget of that size that there isn’t extraordinary waste, fraud, abuse, and political park in it. It’s plain from reports on how the money is being shoveled into the political D.C. toilet.

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Tom Coburn was the bomb! Wish he were still here!

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Or someone else in Congress would take up his mantra and with every bill they submit, say 'I'm the ghost of Tom Coburn. Do the right thing before it's too late!'

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This is an excellent piece, and I'm not only restacking it, but I'll also quote you in an upcoming post. Thanks for the insight and great work!

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That is the demoncrats MO! Drop a 1200-2000 page bill on everyone and say time to vote! Pelosi and Schumer are notorious for doing just that! Isn’t that how OBAMACARE GOT SHOVED DOWN EVERYONES THROAT, QUICK VOTE LATE AT NIGHT, HUGE NUMBER OF PAGES!

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Congress is OUT OF CONTROL. My fellow Americans, it is TIME the American People do something about it. And it will take the American People who have a LEGAL RIGHT.

Go President Trump, Elon and Vik

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You're familiar w/ The Missing $21 Trillion, & FASB 56 (1996) allowing multiple intel agencies TO KEEP SECOND SETS OF BOOKS, yes? Catherine Austin Fitts has been pointing out for years now that this amounts to (someone) literally having their own back door into the Treasury. Surely Congress is aware of this, as they voted to allow this back when the public was being entertained by the teenage sex life of Judge Kavanaugh. Even the possibility of balanced books, even for Congress to inspect, is thereby IMPOSSIBLE. Or do you disagree w/ Fitts?

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....by which I don't mean to DEFEND Congressional spending, the point of which is to keep wealth flowing upward to Those Who Benefit, the top 1%--of which Congress is a segment. IF, e.g., Congress only got paid Federal Minimum Wage & were forced to live entirely on that, w/out one extra cent from any other source, either their priorities w/ regard to spending our regressive tax dollars would improve, or they'd make Federal Minimum Wage high enough to live very comfortably on.

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NEXT! About those Congressional salaries, bonuses & perks - - - scrap 'em all! Put every last bureaucrat & Govt employee on Social Security, PERIOD!

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Federal Minimum Wage, & force them to LIVE ON that w/out a single cent from any other source.

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JUST SAY NO! Hold the swearing-in ceremony on the mall, and serve refreshments from food trucks! Make a statement! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

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Trump is raising money for his swearing in ceremony.

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It’s plainly ludicrous to suggest no harmless cuts can be made to a six trillion dollar budget. Career politicians are the source of our problems, not the solution. We need term limits- 12 House, 12 Senate; Retirement age 72; No lobbying related activity for 5 years after leaving office; All financing for Federal representatives or senators must come from respective districts for representatives or within the state for U.S. senate; All money net campaign expenses turned over to the respective state party election campaign coffers after leaving office.

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I sent 10 Bills to Congress on April 26, 2012. One of the Bills was TERM LIMITS. Out of 535

members of Congress Not ONE replied. Members of Congress DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. THEY HAVE STOLEN SO MANY THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS out of my Social Security checks. Jason Crow REFUSED to speak to me about it and other SERIOUS problems with OUR government. WE the American People have to turn this destructive behavior around.

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Some people wait to run after they have retired. Ron Johnson is one example. He is my Senator and proud of him. 72 is still young.

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Everyone loses energy as they age. They’re passing off the work to younger employees, interns, etc. Hands on work they should be doing instead of pandering to donors all day long. A big obstacle to constructive change in congress comes from the seniority system that rewards fund raisers over people with knowledge of industries, science, construction etc. The seniority system also stifles new ideas, modes of operation, revamping of processes and government agencies, etc.

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re: "no harmless cuts": Not even multiple billions to Ukraine?

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“No harmless cuts” meaning there’s plenty of non-essentials in the budget, I.e. the budget is overloaded with pork barrel welfare, military, useless, overlapping, politically motivated etc spending.

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??? Surely non-essentials ARE harmless cuts.

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I think the shortcoming is that the local newspapers don't follow what's going on and report what their representatives in Congress vote for + and against.

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I hope no one thinks any of this is new. Ive listened to people complain about the corruption of government since the day I became politically aware. Nothing has changed. Except to worsen. There are far too many people with a vested interest to see things continue on as before. PU.

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we elected people to become members of the United States Congress. we expect them to do what is right for the people and the country. unfortunately bills get passed that we the people know nothing about whether it's a good or bad bill. there should be a website where all bills submitted should be posted for one week whereby people can read the bills and vote yes or no on each of them. all bills should be of single content and no more than10 pages and no add on pork items. if a majority of the people say yes, then they can pass the bill. if we say no, then the bill does not get passed. far too long, congress has pulled the wool over our eyes so to speak. this is the 21st century with modern technology where people need to know what is going on in our congress. no more closed door deals. everything out in the open on a national website so that we the people decide what is best for our country and our people.

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re: "we elected": Yeah? Prove it. Prove that the votes for the ppl we voted for got counted FOR the ppl we voted for. (Good luck w/ that.)

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we is the people in the various districts in the states.

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?? You missed my point entirely. For all we know, we all voted for Jill Stein. Or Howdy Doody.

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This administration is bribing congress to pass it by giving them 40% raise which is outrageous and illegal

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The administration doesn't pass the legislation--Congress does. Congress put that raise in there.

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Congress is comprised !

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Thank you for this article. I learned something important today.

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