Over the weekend, U.S. Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) passed away at the age of 92. He was the longest serving Senator in the history of our country.
In reading articles about Senator Byrd, I am reminded of the recent passing of U.S. Representative John Murtha (D-PA). In discussions about each of these men, there was a theme that jumped out at me...pork. Both their supporters and their detractors speak of the Federal dollars they brought home to their constituent districts. It is exactly this ability to bring home the bacon that is often cited as the reason these men continued to be reelected for so many terms.
Both of these men were products of their times. Unfortunately, the Congress of the United States of America has, over the past 200 years or so, become a body which is largely about who gets the most federal money, pork, for their regions, rather than doing what is best for the country. This is how legislators have been judged...how many "projects" did they get funded...how many bridges did they get built...how many parks, roads, etc. did they cut the ribbon on...all using Federal funds. And Byrd and Murtha were some of the best. According to an article by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review concerning Byrd, "Groups like Citizens Against Government Waste dubbed him the King of Pork. Byrd delighted in it."
It is exactly this type of looting of the Federal coffers that has brought our country to the brink of fiscal collapse. It is also pork that was used to bribe the States into ceding their power and becoming subservient to the Federal government.
In the long view, though, it is really The People who are to blame for this development in the operation of our government. Voters have become accustomed to voting benefits to themselves from the largess of of the Federal treasury. Now we are really beginning to see the costs of this philosophy of government held by voters. As the Federal representatives have become more and more prolific in doling out the dollars to keep their jobs and maintain their power...as the States have succumbed more and more to the addictive properties of Federal money, many voters are beginning to see that this system is unsustainable. We need to cut government spending and intrusion into our lives. But this message needs to spread far and wide...it must be taught to the voting public as well as our children so that when the current crisis is over, we do not fall back to sleep at the voting lever. We must have a paradigm shift...we must, ask not what pork our vote can get from our country, but what benefit to liberty we can vote for our country.
I feel for the loss felt by the family and friends of Senator Byrd. But I hope that as the old lions of Congress pass on through death or by the vote that we can see the end of an era...the end of the Era of Pork.
