Bob Bennett Is At It Again! PDF Print E-mail
Written by LL   
Friday, 12 March 2010 07:19

Senator Bennett is at it again.  In trying to do the right thing (saving jobs aerospace jobs at ATK and other companies) he attempted to defend the indefensible.....

Senator Bob Bennett, R-Utah, says he and fellow Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, are teaming up with Congressman Rob Bishop, R-District 1, in trying to save NASA's Constellation and Ares programs which President Barack Obama wants to eliminate.

In a radio news conference, Sen. Bennett said besides losing valuable space programs it would mean the loss of thousands of jobs at ATK Systems in Box Elder County.

Sen. Bennett says he has hopes of turning it around. He says the only way that could be changed is through the appropriations process by refusing to appropriate money for the program the President is favoring. Congress can appropriate "money for Ares and Constellation and say, 'this is what you have to do, Mr. President,'" Sen. Bennett says.

It's a risky move politically, Sen. Bennett says, because it's an earmarking tactic. "I know there's people that say, 'gee, you shouldn't be earmarking.' But the Constitution gives the Congress the power to determine how the money should be spent," he explained.

Gee - I wonder who he could POSSIBLY be talking about....

"I think we should exercise our Constitutional responsibility and not cede that power to the President. Just because he has made the decision he doesn't want the money spent in this way, we should make the decision we are the Congress and we are going to say, 'we are writing it in to the laws that you must spend the money on Ares and move forward with this program.'"

I don't think any of the earmark challengers are advocating Congress giving up their Constitutional power to control the purse strings and I also don't think that anyone would argue that saving the hundreds of thousands of aerospace jobs (that would be lost as a result of closing both the Ares and Constellation and Space Shuttle programs) is a bad thing.  What we ARE advocating, Senator, what you refuse to "get" is that they WAY that the money is appropriated is severely broken and will never get fixed until Congress as a whole discovers their respective spines and reforms the earmark system! 

Because the system IS severely broken, it is not too difficult for a political opponent to attempt to tie the numerous earmarks that Senator Bennett has requested (link if for FY 2008 and 2009 ONLY but you can change the FY in the drop down menu on the upper right hand side of the page). to the millions of campaign dollars that Senator Bennett has received from various PAC's and individuals who represent the businesses getting the earmarked dollars.  For example, Senator Bennett received $43,500 from individuals and PACs representing Fannie Mae and surprise, surprise Senator Bennett voted FOR the Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae bailout.  Senator Bennett gets hundreds of thousands of dollars from banking institutions and gee Senator Bennett votes for TARP and the financial industry bailouts (bailouts that were due - opponents may add - to policies instituted by the same Senate Banking Committee that Senator Bennett SITS ON!)

This reason alone is reason enough for a temporary moratorium (at a minimum) on earmarks.  The potential for the appearance of impropriety is great and the potential for abuse is even greater.  The fact that Senator Bennett continues to defend this broken process is indication that he is PART of the problem and as a result, Bob Bennett must go.