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Politics : View from the Center and Left

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To: Lane3 who wrote (5931)	11/30/2005 5:09:58 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (3) of 542125

Programs can be positive. Pork never is. As much as I don't like pork in general I wouldn't agree that no example is positive. Also one person's program is another's pork to a great extent. Furthermore it was pork spending which was threatened. If pork is always bad than cutting it would be a good idea. Would you really support someone threatening to cut the pork of a member who wouldn't vote against funding the president's secret service protection? I don't understand the relevance of the question. You can find any number of non-controversial programs. If I was against that one you could just bring up another. Similarly I could argue that the tactic should be supported because it could be used to cut or eliminate funding to some horrible program. The tactic exists independently of a specific application of it. You aren't arguing in support for the program that was actually attacked by Istook. The Secret Service has nothing to do with either this case, or the tactic in general. I will opt for collaborative over extortive every time. In a more abstract sense government in general is about extortion. Any government program has to be funded and most people don't hand over those funds out of the goodness of their hearts. This extortion is perhaps a necessary evil to a certain extent. It can even be beneficial. I'm not arguing for anarchy but rather pointing out that you can't get extortion out of the game. Depending on the program I'll take one politician extorting another over one politician collaborating with another to extort even more away from me. The "collaboration" between politicians to load up everyone's pork and get new programs through is not intrinsically a good thing IMO. It might be used to get something good through the system, so might threatening to not support some pork spending. Both tactics can be used to good or ill effect. Tim

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