Megan McCardle over at The Atlantic has it figured. "The ban on earmarks seems to be helping drive our legislative process into a ditch, and the repairs are going to be more expensive than the earmarks were. That doesn't seem like a good bargain."
We heard endless rants by mindless pundits that earmarks only accounted for a few billion dollars. Would never reduce the deficit. Just a waste of time. A Tea Party talking point. Now Ms McCardle writes about the unintended consequences of good government and how it doesn't work. What has McCardle and the rest of the media and the Democrats so agitated is the fact that the Tea Party Congressmen can't be bought. Boehner can't call in a freshman congressman and promise him a new airport for his tiny home town and do a deal. Now he can bring him in and offer him a slice of pizza and try to make his sale. And It just gets worse! Many of these people don't give a damn if they are re-elected if they can only stop the spending. A promise of a future committee chairman won't make the sale either because these guys don't want to make a career of Washington. Most of the smart money thought that, if given time, Boehner could round up enough votes for last night's vote. Wrong! What McCardle et al don't understand is these people ran on principle and for a change we have people in Congress with principles. Ain't that a shame?
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