To the Journal editor:
This is a response to the April 21 Mining Journal editorial titled, "Benishek missed mark in USOEC funding flap."
The problem is that every federally funded program has its supporters and beneficiaries, and folks have different perceptions about the value of each. The newspapers, which claim to agree with the congressman, "that we have to get control of our out-of-control deficit," are also saying, yeah, but don't touch our pet program.
Unfortunately, we can't have our cake and eat it too because there is no free lunch. If the government gives money to a special interest, it has to come from somebody else's pockets. Whether or not this is an earmark is irrelevant. It is one of the myriad federal programs that received budget scrutiny.
We cannot ignore the fact that 42 cents of every federal dollar spent is borrowed money. We cannot dismiss the reality that our national debt is $14.3 trillion and climbing steadily. We cannot ignore that it takes nearly $1 trillion annually to service that debt, which is money that is unavailable to spend elsewhere. This rate of spending is unsustainable and threatens our economic and national security.
As you noted correctly, Dan Benishek ran on the issue of controlling deficit spending with the slogan "Enough is enough," and was elected on that promise. In a written news release so he wouldn't be misquoted, he wrote that he could have taken the easy way out and supported the USOEC funding, but that would violate the greater promise he made to voters last fall to rein in out-of-control deficit spending.
That not only demonstrates courage in the face of political pressure to maintain the status quo, it is a departure from business as usual in which a politician actually keeps a campaign promise.
Where and how to cut public spending is the subject of endless controversy and it depends on whose ox is gored. That is because there is a fundamental philosophical difference between tax and spend big government liberals and balanced budget smaller government conservatives. That is the essence of the budget fight in Washington.
The political left wing Democrats fail to acknowledge that they lost a national referendum last fall on how they ran the government. The voters were unhappy and demanded that Congress change the way they do business. Our congressman endorsed that message and acted on it.
John Hongisto
Deerton