{"id":2615,"date":"2006-10-25T16:08:21","date_gmt":"2006-10-25T16:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zmetro.com\/?p=2615"},"modified":"2006-10-25T16:08:21","modified_gmt":"2006-10-25T16:08:21","slug":"tammy_baldwin_o","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=2615","title":{"rendered":"Tammy Baldwin on Earmarks"},"content":{"rendered":"

I received an email recently from Tammy Baldwin regarding my post on the excesses of congressional earmarks<\/a> – using our checkbooks<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Dear Mr. Zellmer,<\/p>\n

Thank you for contacting me regarding earmark reform. It is good
\nto hear from you, and I apologize for the delay in my response.<\/p>\n

Like you, I am concerned about unnecessary government spending.
\nIn recent years, government spending has increased dramatically,
\ncreating unprecedented national debt. Continued, large-scale
\ndeficit spending is unquestionably poor public policy. Many have
\nsuggested that one of the ways to cut spending is to reform the
\npractice of “earmarks”, which are appropriation amendments that
\nfund specific projects. In the current climate of excessive
\nspending, reforming this amendment process will not go far
\nenough. The government is spending billions of dollars a day on
\nthe Iraq War while simultaneously lowering tax revenue by cutting
\ntaxes for corporations and wealthy individuals. This shifts the
\nburden onto the middle and lower-income earners who are unable
\nto support such extensive spending.<\/p>\n

At the current rate, the United States is adding one trillion dollars
\nto our national debt every eighteen months. According to the
\nCongressional Budget Office (CBO), if the President’s current tax
\nand spending polices are continued over the next ten years, the
\nyearly deficit will increase to $439 billion as soon as 2014. The
\nnational debt will skyrocket to $14.5 trillion, almost double today’s
\nlevel. Clearly, this course of fiscal irresponsibility cannot be
\nsustained. I believe Congress must return to fiscal discipline, such
\nas in the late 1990s when we turned annual federal deficits into
\nsurpluses. Rest assured that I will keep your views in mind
\nregarding earmark reform as the debate over fiscal responsibility
\nand the federal budget continues.<\/p>\n

Again, thank you for sharing your views. Your opinion matters to
\nme. If I can be of service to you in any other way, please do not
\nhesitate to let me know. As a result of the anthrax incidents, all
\nmail sent to Congress is first irradiated. This process causes
\nsignificant delays. To ensure the fastest response, I encourage all
\nconstituents who have access to the internet to contact me through
\nmy website at http:\/\/tammybaldwin.house.gov.<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

Tammy Baldwin
\nMember of Congress<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I appreciate the email. Baldwin gets points (or her office) for emailing responses whereas our Senators continue to send dead tree responses to electronic inquiries. Tammy’s House<\/a> & Campaign<\/a> websites. Her opponent in this falls race is Dave Magnum<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I received an email recently from Tammy Baldwin regarding my post on the excesses of congressional earmarks – using our checkbooks: Dear Mr. Zellmer, Thank you for contacting me regarding earmark reform. It is good to hear from you, and I apologize for the delay in my response. Like you, I am concerned about unnecessary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}