"If We Can't Stop It, We Can't Stop Anything"

Katherine Mangu-Ward | September 17, 2009

Remember the John Murtha—Johnstown Cambria County Airport? Named after pork-barreler extraordinaire Rep. John C. Murtha (D-Pa.), the airport has scooped up about $150 million in defense appropriations over the years—from a committee Murtha just happens to chair. It serves about 20 people a day, and the only flights are to Washington, D.C. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of news outlets covered this story of waste over the last several months, after the airport snagged an additional $800,000 in stimulus funds to pave a backup runway.

Thanks to all that coverage, a Google News search for Murtha is topped by this quotable quote from the man himself:

"If I'm corrupt, it's because I take care of my district"

 This afternoon, the Senate voted on an amendment to kill $1.4 million in annual spending on the airport. The amendment failed, 53-43.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) proposed the amendment. He sums the situation up tidily and bleakly. "This is something we need to stop. If we can't stop it, we can't stop anything."

For more, watch and weep.

Reason has been weeping and gnashing its teeth about this for a while now.

Comments

|9.17.09 @ 5:57PM|#

Mr. Murtha is not a United States senator-perhaps Reason's crack editing staff did not complete their fact checking prior to publication.

ed|9.17.09 @ 6:01PM|#

"If we can't stop it, we can't stop anything."

You know what might stop it?
A 20-year-old fake hooker and a 25-year-old film-maker in a chinchilla coat.

skr|9.17.09 @ 6:05PM|#

How quaint, a Senator thought they could stop the machine.

Nipplemancer|9.17.09 @ 6:09PM|#

john murtha is a racist.

Anti|9.17.09 @ 6:11PM|#

This is precisely why most people love their congress-critter, and despise all the others.

Your money for me, but not for thee!

|9.17.09 @ 6:11PM|#

So, Congress can't stop anything, eh? What's the point of its existence, then?

polio robot|9.17.09 @ 6:14PM|#

"If I'm corrupt, it's because I take care of my district own hand picked cronies and my big government tit sucking ass"


There, FIFY Rep. Murtha

/Surprised no one made this correction sooner.

Congressman|9.17.09 @ 6:15PM|#

So, Congress can't stop anything, eh? What's the point of its existence, then?

Heh heh heh ...

polio robot|9.17.09 @ 6:17PM|#

"If I'm corrupt, it's because I take care of my district own hand picked cronies and my big government tit sucking ass"

There, FIFY Rep. Murtha

/Surprised no one made this correction sooner.

That's why I'm not a programmer, hate looking for that one character I missed.

|9.17.09 @ 6:23PM|#

"We're helpless! Helpless, I tell you."

*weeps inconsolably*

Spartacus|9.17.09 @ 6:35PM|#

I didn't know tits could suck ass. I'm getting a really weird visual from this one.

|9.17.09 @ 6:42PM|#

'Twas pretty much a party line vote. It's the Dems turn at the trough and they aren't gonna let little things like fiscal discipline and moral responsibilty push them back.

I humbly predict that like Bush and the GOP before, Obama will say nothing about this plundering of treasury.

disgruntled employee|9.17.09 @ 6:49PM|#

Please tell Reason to stop spamming my facepage

Plant Immigration Rights Suppo|9.17.09 @ 6:54PM|#

"A 20-year-old fake hooker and a 25-year-old film-maker in a chinchilla coat."

They deserve a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Somehow I don't think they will get one from President Obama though.

Michael|9.17.09 @ 7:40PM|#

"If I'm corrupt, it's because I take care of my district"

Okay, how's this for a novel idea then, you fucking plundering, ass-faced pigman? How's about you go back to your district, run and win in a local election and take care of them from there? Sound like a plan?

|9.17.09 @ 8:10PM|#

If we can't stop it, we can't stop anything."

That pretty much sums up the situation.

I'm sure Obamacare will be completely different.

|9.17.09 @ 8:16PM|#

If only the Honorable Rep. Murtha, could handle things the same way a fellow Pennsylvanian did, when faced with an ethical dilemma.

|9.17.09 @ 8:36PM|#

Perhaps Dwyer killed himself because he woke up and realized what a fraud it was for him to be in the public sector for so long leeching off of fellow Pennsylvanians.

|9.17.09 @ 8:40PM|#

Really? 43 votes to defund this effing airport, 3 more than needed for a filibuster, and they can't stop it?

Oh, wait, that would mean filibustering the underlying spending bill full of THEIR pork.

Kinda like how the Democrats couldn't muster enough votes to kill funding for the Iraq war, back when they had 40+ Senate votes and were in the minority.

|9.17.09 @ 8:47PM|#

"So, Congress can't stop anything, eh? What's the point of its existence, then?"

To rubberstamp.

|9.17.09 @ 9:27PM|#

"Really? 43 votes to defund this effing airport, 3 more than needed for a filibuster, and they can't stop it?

Oh, wait, that would mean filibustering the underlying spending bill full of THEIR pork.

Kinda like how the Democrats couldn't muster enough votes to kill funding for the Iraq war, back when they had 40+ Senate votes and were in the minority."

What are you talking about? Anyone can filibuster, even one senator. To cloture (break a filibuster) you need 60 votes.

Anyway, this seems like more a political stunt than anything else (though not nearly as much as threats to defund the Iraq War were). DeMint voted for farm subsidies and everything else you'd expect from a South Carolina rep. I guess we'll know if he's actually reformed or not the next time such a bill comes across the floor.

Too bad this didn't work, though, and any retaliatory cuts of pork would have been all the better.

|9.17.09 @ 9:31PM|#

Ah, sorry, I re-read what you wrote and now understand what you meant. i.e. that the Democrats did not have the votes for cloture.

|9.17.09 @ 9:41PM|#

Oh, wait, that would mean filibustering the underlying spending bill full of THEIR pork.

The main budget bills can't be filibustered.

Anyone can filibuster, even one senator. To cloture (break a filibuster) you need 60 votes.

They can't filibuster one of the budget appropriations bills. They're passed under reconciliation.

Obama's budget earlier this year was an exception, because it was outside the normal budget process. (Replacing a placeholder hold-the-line budget before the 2008 elections with spending increases.)

DeMint voted for farm subsidies and everything else you'd expect from a South Carolina rep.

When? DeMint voted to uphold the veto of the Farm Bill, one of only 14 senators. (McCain would have too, but was campaigning.) 12 Republicans, plus 2 Democrats from Rhode Island because there are no farms there. I suppose he's voted for other farm subsidies before, but he's as good as it gets.

Gilbert Martin|9.17.09 @ 9:56PM|#

" If we can't stop it, we can't stop anything."

This should be immediately brought any time that the dems claim that $500 B will be cut out of Medicare (without ABSOLUTELY no cuts in benefits of course!!!) to help "pay" for Obamacare.

The Libertarian Guy|9.17.09 @ 10:17PM|#

Hey, where's Tony? He should be along any minute now, telling us why Murtha should be given a pass.

JB|9.17.09 @ 11:31PM|#

The next time anyone says anything nice about any of the retards that voted to keep up this spending, a knife should be taken to them and they should be worked over slowly.

Thankfully there is a hell and these fuckers will get theirs. That isn't a threat; it's a promise to come down to hell and fuck with your souls.

|9.18.09 @ 1:18AM|#

Analyze the loyalty of any rep or senator to three things - their district or state, Washington DC and the USA as a whole, The result will be (in their minds):

1) First place - tie between their district or state and Washington DC
2 Very distant third place - USA as a whole

They tell themselves they are taking care of their district, but their first loyalty is to DC and the political class. Everyone in DC who works on legislation, reports on it, opines in the media - the value of their real estate, I mean they homes they live in, is enhanced by on having a big powerful federal government that throws a lot of tax dollars around and makes more and more regulations telling everyone what to do.

|9.18.09 @ 1:55AM|#

Ah, sorry, I re-read what you wrote and now understand what you meant. i.e. that the Democrats did not have the votes for cloture.

Yes, but too bad neither of you seem to realize that cloture doesn't apply during the budget reconciliation process. That's why it is really important whether the Senate Democrats try to pass Obamacare under reconciliation, so that it will only take a majority and it can't be filibustered. They've been threatening to do it.

Primer on reconciliation and the threats to use it with Obamacare from Keith Hennessey. The primer discusses why filibustering is impossible on this budget bill.

The budget process takes place in committees, where filibustering is impossible. The committee reports are then combined into a reconciliation budget bill, which cannot be filibustered.

Kolohe|9.18.09 @ 2:40AM|#

Here's a weird thing-
From the article:
"Both Mr. Specter and fellow Pennsylvania Democratic Senator Casey spoke on the Senate floor in support of the airport and its benefits for Cambria County."

From the senate website:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00284

"Specter (D-PA), Not Voting"

Talk about not having to courtesy to give a reach around.

ed|9.18.09 @ 6:13AM|#

Plant Immigration Rights Supporter | September 17, 2009, 6:54pm | #

"A 20-year-old fake hooker and a 25-year-old film-maker in a chinchilla coat."

They deserve a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Somehow I don't think they will get one from President Obama though.

Just heard NPR's report on the House of Reps. vote to defund ACORN.
NPR never mentioned the two muckrakers, or FOX News' role in airing the sting video footage.
Evidently, ACORN's collapse occurred in a vacuum.

|9.18.09 @ 7:31AM|#

"Both Mr. Specter and fellow Pennsylvania Democratic Senator Casey spoke on the Senate floor in support of the airport and its benefits for Cambria County."

Noticed that, too. C'mon, Pennsylvania - kick that horrible old fossil out, please?

Xeones|9.18.09 @ 8:34AM|#

When i take over, Senators who do this sort of shit once will be publicly flogged and driven through the streets of Washington. A second offense will result in their state being expelled from the Union.

I don't expect to rule for very long.

Rich|9.18.09 @ 8:49AM|#

Obviously the solution is to rename it the "ACORN Airport".

|9.18.09 @ 8:50AM|#

Libertymike, I do not see anywhere in the article that claims murtha is a senator. The article is about a senate bill amendment.

Chinny Chin Chin|9.18.09 @ 9:01AM|#

Just heard NPR's report on the House of Reps. vote to defund ACORN.
NPR never mentioned the two muckrakers, or FOX News' role in airing the sting video footage.
Evidently, ACORN's collapse occurred in a vacuum.

ed,

Standard progressive response seems to be, "This was just isolated incidents perpetrated by a few bad apples. Nothing to see here."

|9.18.09 @ 10:04AM|#

This was just isolated incidents perpetrated by a few bad apples. Nothing to see here.

Isolated incidents, if memory serves, in Baltimore, Washington, Brooklyn, San Francisco, and San Diego, so far.

|9.18.09 @ 10:19AM|#

Right DeMint, you can't stop anything...now as 36 of you fakes, phonies and frauds are up for election in '10, it's up to us to put y'all on the unemployment line, and as many of your associates in the house as we can as well. Been there a term or two or twenty...pal, you're out'ta here....

|9.18.09 @ 10:28AM|#

Isolated incidents, if memory serves, in Baltimore, Washington, Brooklyn, San Francisco, and San Diego, so far.

Should we use Neu's Tea Par-Tay standard that if the Dems don't immediately repudiate the bad actors, then they have lost their credibility?

creech|9.18.09 @ 11:58AM|#

The freaking airport in Cambria County may be of value; if so, let it be privately owned, operated and funded. But, Sens. Specter and Casey, the federal funds have gone to build a second runway when the first is still grossly underused. So how would be voting to save this money hurt "Cambria County?"

|9.18.09 @ 7:53PM|#

Re:
"libertymike | September 17, 2009, 5:57pm | #

Mr. Murtha is not a United States senator-perhaps Reason's crack editing staff did not complete their fact checking prior to publication."

Hey, Mike? Where does it say he's a Senator?