Mount Redoubt in Alaska erupting in 1990
In the Fox series Family Guy, Peter Griffin is mocked by his wife for buying volcano insurance from a greasy salesman. For those of you who don’t know, Family Guy centers around life in Quahog, Rhode Island—hardly the center of volcanic activity and definitely not in the Ring of Fire.
However, real life volcano insurance is no joke. Last month, the governor of Louisiana, and possible 2012 Republican presidential hopeful, Bobby Jindal similarly mocked the earmarked appropriation for Alaskan volcano monitoring equipment:
[Congressional stimulus] legislation is larded with wasteful spending. It includes $300 million to buy new cars for the government, $8 billion for high-speed rail projects, such as a ‘magnetic levitation’ line from Las Vegas to Disneyland, and $140 million for something called ‘volcano monitoring.’ Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.
Clever, Bobby. But you missed an important factor is your tirade against government spending, per Talking Points Memo: volcanoes actually erupt. That’s right. Mount Redoubt, located near Anchorage, Alaska, started erupting last night. Now, I’m not saying this monitoring equipment should have been included in the stimulus bill. It shouldn’t have been. Nor am I saying this earmark could have helped somehow stopped the volcano from erupting. Funding for the monitoring equipment, based on the reports I’ve seen, hasn’t even moved forward yet. But Jindal’s point, as a proponent of limited-government, is that this equipment is unnecessary and is an example of government spending run amok. (Forget that this was an earmark from Alaska’s Republican congressman Don Young.) And that’s disingenuous to the practical benefits of earmarks proposals.
Recently, some Republicans, mostly those with 2012 ambitions, have criticized government spending, and have even opted to refuse it. But as they are learning quickly, it’s hard to talk-the-talk and walk-the-walk. Most are not agreeing to accept it, despite the ruckus. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has said she doesn’t want the stimulus money without open public debate; in other words, she wants the best of both worlds. Palin wants to get the money to fund her state, while opposing it politically.
Certainly, there are plenty of wasteful projects from the government. But not every earmark specified to a particular region for a particular cause is wasteful. Quite the contrary, many earmarks provide needed funding for projects communities need. And Republicans are going to lose this battle if they seek it.
Here’s a Zen-like reminder from former Clinton aide, now ABC journalist, George Stephanopoulos in his book:
“I don’t think government is good, just necessary.”
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Bobby Jindal, Republican, Sarah Palin, Stimulus
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