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By Eric Coonrod
Last Updated: July 27, 2010
Next Tuesday, Kansas Republicans will vote in our party's primary election. In addition to numerous other contests, the results of our primary will undoubtedly choose our next U.S. Senator.
If you consider that out of the 33 Senators that have served Kansas over the last 150 years, only three of them have been Democrats, I don't think it's a stretch to assume that the Kansas Senate race will effectively be over after Aug. 3. If my fellow Republicans are like me, they've found it difficult to find an ideological difference between Reps. Tiahrt or Moran, the leading challengers for Sam Brownback's Senate seat in Washington D.C. The two are virtually interchangeable when it comes to the usual social issues — immigration, abortion, education, gun control, etc.
While these are all very important issues, none of these alone is likely to threaten our long term health as a nation like our current financial situation. One issue related to our economic health is the amount of earmark spending that gets through our Congress in Washington D.C. every year. An earmark is an extra spending provision attached to a larger, more essential bill. In each of the last three years, our Congress paid out almost $40 billion of this extra spending. This spending is nearly three times the entire budget for the State of Kansas. With a national debt over $13 trillion, adding tens of billions in non-essential spending is not a responsible use of taxpayer funds. Not only that, but it certainly doesn't bode well for those who will be left to pay off this indulgent spending years from now.
Reps. Tiahrt and Moran both are campaigning with a pledge to bring more fiscal discipline to Washington D.C. If you look at the numbers, however, you'll see that neither candidate can boast a spotless record on this non-essential earmark spending. According to Citizens Against Government Waste, over just the last three years Jerry Moran has earmarked a total of $42 million worth of projects. While this is a large amount, in the same time period Rep. Tiahrt earmarked over three times as much, a total of $149 million worth. (Both pale in comparison to Sen. Brownback's $315 million over the last three years) Ideally, it would be nice to have a candidate with no earmarked projects to their names, but in a less than ideal world one must compromise. On this issue, at least, Rep. Moran would seem to be a better choice than Rep. Tiahrt. If elected, I hope that Jerry Moran will be successful in following through with fewer earmarks, using his Senate seat to try to leave our nation in better economic condition.
Eric Coonrod lives in Holyrood and teaches government classes at Ellsworth High School.
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