Letter to the Editor

Update talking points

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Dear Editor,

Dick Trail needs to update his partisan talking points on earmarks because they are really out-of-date.

In his latest column, he states, "earmarks are a significant part of any federal budget yet today."

Please, sir, define "significant." First, there are no earmarks in bills now before the Senate.

Second, Sen. Nelson has introduced zero earmarks.

And third, there are only seven earmarks in a House Agriculture Appropriations bill recently analyzed by Citizens Against Government Waste. As they point out, that's a 61 percent decrease from the previous year. Now, that's significant!

Incidentally, those seven earmarks somehow found their way into a bill sponsored by Republicans and allowed by a committee that is chaired by the Republican majority. This from the majority that has publicly taken a vow against earmarking.

Dick Trail has never let the facts stand in the way of his views and I suspect most people in McCook understand this. Usually I overlook it but I felt in this case the record needed to be corrected and readers deserved to know the facts.

Sincerely,

Jim Fagin

Deputy Director

of Communications

Sen. Ben Nelson

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  • I cannot speak for Dick, but I can give you my unprofessional view of what I see as 'Ear Marks,' or 'Pork,' or whatever one wishes to call any 'leach' legislation, that attachés to another offering, strong enough, or needed enough to be considered for passage. Oh, the Poli-Sci Prof's, say that we must attach legislation to other, to 'get the job done.' Well, the job is done, as we are now so close to bankrupting this nation, one can almost spit in the eye of slavery.

    Sorry, you rankled my feathers. Any legislation that cannot stand on it's own merit, and/or has nothing to do with the original offering, is, IMO, Ear-Mark/Pork/NOT RIGHT.

    Both sides of the Isle is in error, as is the 'We the People,' for expecting more than our rightful share of any spending. It is common to point at those who are being (in humble opinion) the worst, and not mentioning (as loudly) those closest to our own sway, but we need S T O P what we are doing. By the way, (((There should not be an """Isle""" in Congress))) There should only be ONE "SIDE," O U R S I D E !! (We the People's side). But I blather. Say hi to Ben for me.

    -- Posted by Navyblue on Thu, Jul 21, 2011, at 1:14 PM
  • *

    Well said Navyblue!!

    Fagin tries to put a favorable spin on Nelson's radical voting record but how can one defend the indefensible??

    -- Posted by ksfarmer on Thu, Jul 21, 2011, at 9:47 PM
  • So, our politicians need Communications Directors? And the Director needs a Deputy? What does a Com. Dir. do? What does a Dep.Com.Dir. do? Is this the "hey-boy" that BOHICA Ben sics on mis-informed constituants? Dick is dead on in his article "Starve the Beast." All of the "common folk" know that the cat doing the squalling is the one that gets his tail stepped on. I think Dick stepped on a tail! You're bad Dick, bad, bad, bad. Do it some more, it's funny to read the response of a Dep.Com.Dir. that has both feet in his mouth.

    -- Posted by Chief Gun on Fri, Jul 22, 2011, at 10:14 AM
  • Don't think he's whining ocho, just setting the record straight for old Dicky boy's out dated material, that even his own sister often disagrees with.

    Just sayin...

    -- Posted by goarmy67 on Mon, Jul 25, 2011, at 11:26 PM
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