Pork Is Virtuous?

Regarding "Team Texas Fraying Amid Tensions" (Sunday Front Page), I've got a few problems with the premise of the article.  First off, it strikes me as curious that "corralling federal cash for the Lone Star State" should in any sense be portrayed as a good thing, much less the primary objective of the entire Texas congressional delegation.  Controlling the political process through earmarks, pork and patronage has proven to be a destructive and corrupting practice.  It has also led to the berserk growth of the Federal government and its out of control deficits.  Second, every dollar the Washington establishment so generously doles out to the States first had to be confiscated from the States.  This can only mean that if "Team Texas" is united and more effective at procuring federal dollars, they do it at the expense of other states, and other taxpayers.  

 

Slavering after federal dollars not only demeans our political process, it makes the fifty sovereign states mere vassals of the federal government, competing for crumbs off the Establishment table.  Ted Cruz gets that, and for the most part, so does John Cornyn.  Because of their leadership, Texas is one of a very few states that is challenging the long time status quo.  If you want to measure the true success of the Texas delegation, it will be in their ability to reform the federal government's spending habits.  It will also be measured by how much Texas money stays in Texas for Texans, instead of being siphoned off by the Fat Cats in Washington D.C.

 

Perhaps the next article can tell that side of the story.

 

Pete Smith

Cypress