Sometimes watching the goings-on in Congress truly makes you think of that colloquial expression, "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic."
That is certainly the case when we look at the whole issue surrounding the egregious earmark of Charles Rangel, the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee (pictured left). The earmark in question is to shell out $2 million dollars to go towards the creation of a center for public policy at the City College of New York.
Now, there may be some debate in Congress about whether $2 million to go towards a building at a college is "egregious" or not. Certainly in the current paradigm that is Congress, where members routinely are sending home pork to their districts, this earmark unfortunately doesn’t really stick out.
EXCEPT… Now, get this. It falls under the category of "you simply couldn’t make this up if you tried…"
The earmark calls for funding the CHARLES B RANGEL Center for Public Service. That’s right, this left wing Democrat who has probably never voted against a tax increase in his life wants to appropriate millions in federal tax dollars to go towards a building named after… HIMSELF!
But wait, there’s more.
According to the marketing materials provided by Rangel himself to his colleagues, this center includes a library to house the Congressman’s future papers, a "well furnished office" for him, and an endowment. There is even mention of a librarian to work on the organizing of his papers. Apparently this last part is worded thusly in the paperwork: "The Rangel archivist librarian will organize, index and preserve for posterity all documents, photographs and memorabilia relating to Congressman Rangel’s career."’
Pretty outrageous, eh? Pretty EGREGIOUS.
Well, up to the plate steps our own Flashreport Washington, D.C., correspondent Congressman John Campbell (pictured right). We’re all very proud of Campbell who in his short time on Capitol Hill has garnered a reputation for being one of the most dogmatic fiscal watchdogs in Congress.
Last Thursday night, when this matter was up on the floor of the House, Congressman Campbell offered a very simple amendment — to strike this egregious earmark. If you have a few minutes, you can actually watch the ensuing floor debate between Campbell and Rangel right here or if you don’t have the time to watch it, it is a quick read here.
My favorite part of the dialogue between Campbell and Rangel comes towards the end, where the self-important Rangel announces that it is totally appropriate that HE pursue this earmarked named for himself, but that Congressman Campbell is too new to Congress to be able to do such a thing himself. Nice.
**There is more – click the link**
July 26th, 2007 at 12:00 am
This is outrageous!!!!
I see my Congressman John Doolittle voted for Rangel’s earmark. This is exactly why Doolittle’s race was so close last election. Next election he will very likely be knocked out because of this out-of-touch arrogance.
These guys have been in Washington for too long! We desperately need federal term limits.
Rangel should be embarrassed that he has spent 38 years in Congress. He hasn’t produced anything or done anything useful. All he has done is take taxpayer’s hard-earned money and spent it. Time for a real job Charlie, time to join the private sector and become a producer rather than a taker. (“Taker” is saying it nice, a more descriptive word would be, “leech”.)
Time for federal term limits!!!!