Earmarks, Waste, Fraud, and Abuse are Meaningless Political Pathos

Throughout the campaign, I attacked Billy Long's no earmark rhetoric as pure pathos that will do nothing to reduce the national debt. It appears that's also a message recently heard on CNN during an interview of Alan Simpson by Candy Crowley. Simpson stated what I have been stating on this blog--ending earmarks isn't going to do much.

“If you hear a politician get up and say, ‘I know we can get this done. We’re going to get rid of all earmarks; all waste, fraud and abuse; all foreign aid; Air Force One; all congressional pensions.’ That’s just sparrow belch in the midst of the typhoon. That’s about six, eight, ten percent of where we are. So, I’m waiting for the politician to get up and say, ‘There’s only one way to do this: You dig into the big four — Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and defense.’ And anybody giving you anything different than that, you want to walk out the door, stick your finger down your throat, and give them the green weenie.”