Demand responsibility, not payback
Raymond Bateman's column on the effectiveness of New Jersey's senators (Courier-News, November 14) is a shallow treatment. He points to a study from Rutgers' Bloustein School to critique the inability "of our senators... to influence their peers" -- in short, we've been electing people who neglect us.
There are two fatal flaws in this thinking. First, that study ranks states in terms of federal money brought in compared to the amount we pay in federal taxes. It also points out that New Jersey is one of the wealthiest states in the nation -- we have the second-highest per capita income, and the highest median household and median family incomes. States with the wealthiest people will pay the most in tax money and least need federal aid.
Inappropriately evaluating lawmakers this way is a fundamental cause of our ballooning national debt. This pervasive bipartisan fiscal irresponsibility inspires reelection campaigns that universally flout local spending as heroic. It also speaks volumes about the spin machines candidates buy with their bloated campaign treasuries: imagine the gall required to talk about fiscal responsibility one day, and then boast about bleeding federal money to a district the next!
Voters in South Dakota recently proved that even Tom Daschle, a king of senatorial self-promotion, is subject to questions larger than, "What have you done for me lately?" I hope voters here in New Jersey continue asking our representatives to push the best national policies, not short-sighted, self-aggrandizing, reelection resume-building pork projects.
There are two fatal flaws in this thinking. First, that study ranks states in terms of federal money brought in compared to the amount we pay in federal taxes. It also points out that New Jersey is one of the wealthiest states in the nation -- we have the second-highest per capita income, and the highest median household and median family incomes. States with the wealthiest people will pay the most in tax money and least need federal aid.
Inappropriately evaluating lawmakers this way is a fundamental cause of our ballooning national debt. This pervasive bipartisan fiscal irresponsibility inspires reelection campaigns that universally flout local spending as heroic. It also speaks volumes about the spin machines candidates buy with their bloated campaign treasuries: imagine the gall required to talk about fiscal responsibility one day, and then boast about bleeding federal money to a district the next!
Voters in South Dakota recently proved that even Tom Daschle, a king of senatorial self-promotion, is subject to questions larger than, "What have you done for me lately?" I hope voters here in New Jersey continue asking our representatives to push the best national policies, not short-sighted, self-aggrandizing, reelection resume-building pork projects.
posted by Mark at 2:38 PM
3 Comments:
"I still think New Jersey has a right to be indignant about the disparity. ... Red-staters scorn the idea of taking from the rich to buy health care or education for the poor, while happily redistributing New Jersey's money to corn farmers in South Dakota and no-bid contractors in Iraq. 'Giving states' like New Jersey should make this point more often."
To what end? I agree we should point it out, and I personally have been doing so often since it came to my attention. But should we be talking about it terms of vengeance -- if those red-staters don't shape up, we're taking our money back? It isn't happening without restructuring the federal tax code to attack the poor (which us liberal blue-staters recognize as morally abhorrent). And conservatives are pushing for exactly that kind of restructuring. Short of secession, there's no use trying to leverage it to our good and most liberal blue-staters are willing to pay more for our causes.
It seems to me that blue-staters need to get serious about fiscal responsibility. Let's see a Democratic "Contract with America" where they vow to fillibuster any bills that have added-on pork spending. It's perfectly consistent to seek to bolster federal programs without adding more money than necessary, and I'd like to see some Democrats making that arguement instead of hiding behind "The era of Big Government is over"-type rhetoric.
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