Ladies and Gentleman: The Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee

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bam15

bam15

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As GOP slashes budget, lawmakers who built careers on earmarks must re-brand

WILLIAMSBURG, KY. - Is Rep. Harold Rogers the right man to break Congress's addiction to spending?

One might ponder that question at the water park here, part of the Hal Rogers Family Entertainment Center. Or maybe during a drive on Hal Rogers Boulevard. Or Hal Rogers Drive. Or Hal Rogers Parkway.

Rogers, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, is the point man for GOP budget slashing. But he didn't get a water park for cutting budgets: The park, like everything else, was a reward for directing federal spending to Kentucky.
Rogers, a former prosecutor, sponsored $175 million worth of earmarks from 2008 to 2010, placing him fourth out of 435 representatives, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense (Young was second, with $298 million). In an Appalachian region locked in poverty, Rogers made money the center of his political persona, saying that "a vision without funding is a hallucination."

Today, community college students sip coffee in the Harold Rogers Student Commons. Recruits fight fires at the Hal Rogers Fire Training Center. Every day in the summer, 1,100 people visit the water park - which the city named after Rogers in gratitude for $40 million he had sent to the area.
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Mr. Rogers's neighborhood

The 'Prince of Pork'
 
#3
#3
If he repents... then we forgive. If he's a fraud... we'll fire.

If the guy actually cuts pork from here on out then this will fall under that big broad category called "So what?"
 
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The OP runs along the same lines as "BHO grew up a Muslim". Should that disqualify him now?
 
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Not really. To be fair, this guy was a huge part of the problem. If he sincerely wants to be part of the solution then great. If not, let's toss him overboard too.
 
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sjt18 said:
Not really. To be fair, this guy was a huge part of the problem. If he sincerely wants to be part of the solution then great. If not, let's toss him overboard too.
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That is just it, he is already trying to be part of the solution. The OP is condemning him for his past.
 
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T-TownVol said:
That is just it, he is already trying to be part of the solution. The OP is comdemning him for his past.
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Makes perfect sense that he is holding a $10,000 a pop dinner tonight.

I'm all too familiar with Hal Rogers.
 
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bam15 said:
Makes perfect sense that he is holding a $10,000 a pop dinner tonight.

I'm all too familiar with Hal Rogers.
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Is a dime of that money coming out of your state or the federal budget? He has every right to, I assume, fund raise. Don't go if you can't afford it.
 
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T-TownVol said:
Is a dime of that money coming out of your state or the federal budget? He has every right to, I assume, fund raise. Don't go if you can't afford it.
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Yes. Next time they put a water park in GA (Federal Funds) that is opened 3 months a year for a poverty area with a city the size of 5,000 people get back to me.
 
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T-TownVol said:
That is just it, he is already trying to be part of the solution. The OP is condemning him for his past.
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so do you think he saw the error of his ways or was it that his cushy job might come to an end?
 
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bam15 said:
Yes. Next time they put a water park in GA (Federal Funds) that is opened 3 months a year for a poverty area with a city the size of 5,000 people get back to me.
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I was referencing the dinner, not the pork of the past.
 
#15
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T-TownVol said:
That is just it, he is already trying to be part of the solution. The OP is condemning him for his past.
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Actions are the only things that count. If he's really changed after two years then we can congratulate him. Until then, skepticism is the better course.
 
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bam15 said:
I answered both of your questions -- the former not really even consisting of a question, with bizarre logic.
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You are saying that your state or the federal government is paying for his fund raiser and he is pocketing the 10K..... I just want to get on the same page here
 
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#18
I trust the GOP only slight more than the Dems... IOW's, next to none. The fact that neither party nor any potential party made up of human beings can be trusted with that kind of power and money is the reason our founders wanted a small and limited gov't... and the reason we need to go back to it.

No country in history has ever had a big gov't that was not or did not become corrupt. Jefferson's short statement is profoundly wise: That gov't which governs least, governs best.
 
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sjt18 said:
That has nothing to do with earmarks or pork.
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Extravagance and the ego of pork-barrel leaders has everything to do with earmarks. It signals that he has no interest in actually changing DC.
 
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T-TownVol said:
You are saying that your state or the federal government is paying for his fund raiser and he is pocketing the 10K..... I just want to get on the same page here
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The Gov't paid for the center that he is holding the dinner at. The center also so happens to be named after him. Funny how that works out.
 
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bam15 said:
Extravagance and the ego of pork-barrel leaders has everything to do with earmarks. It signals that he has no interest in actually changing DC.
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No. I am sorry but raising money for political campaigns does not necessarily mean a politician will not be a spending hawk.

I don't trust the guy or anyone else in Congress.... but you are trying to make two unrelated things singular by assumption.
 
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bam15 said:
Extravagance and the ego of pork-barrel leaders has everything to do with earmarks. It signals that he has no interest in actually changing DC.
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Just because you can not run in those circles does not mean that it is wrong. I am speaking of the 10K per plate dinner, just so we are clear.
 
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bam15 said:
The Gov't paid for the center that he is holding the dinner at. The center also so happens to be named after him. Funny how that works out.
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So you want the building torn down, renamed, or what?
 
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