There is little argument today that the Congress has been irresponsible in the way it has handled our nation’s budget. The flood of new spending and the increase in debt we now owe to other nations threatens our national security. Since my entry into the campaign for Tennessee’s Third Congressional District, and before as a private citizen, I have been clear in my commitment to cutting wasteful federal spending based on the very principles that the average citizen uses every month: prioritizing our true needs while moving away from pork spending. It is because I have staked out principled ground on this issue, that I was honored to receive the endorsement of Club for Growth, the nation’s leading advocacy group for conservative fiscal policy.

This week, funding for the critical Chickamauga Lock funding came into question at a forum of Third District candidates. During the forum, attorney Chuck Fleischmann stated that he “rejected the endorsement of Club for Growth, a special interest group” because he “refused to sign a pledge against earmarks” and cited the risk to funding of the lock as one of the reasons he has refused to sign a pledge to work for earmark reform. The funding of this local priority has national security implications, and the process for all Army Corps of Engineers projects needs to be evaluated to place all requests on the same playing field. If appropriations were handled constitutionally, funding the lock would not be a matter of earmarks.

Our positions on the issue of earmarks could not be more different. Perhaps Mr. Fleischmann is less confident in the national importance of Oak Ridge and the commerce of the Tennessee River than I am. I have met with both TVA officials and key stakeholders in Oak Ridge. My commitment is unwavering on funding such issues as this that impact national and energy security.

Congress is supposed to work - with members articulating the case for funding national priorities based on the national interest-in its Constitutional manner. Issues with merit should survive and those without should not. Unfortunately, Washington as we know it today has devolved into a web of parochial deals and political nest-feathering -- and it's strangling our country's economy. We need a new breed of representative in Congress, people who will go and stand up for the nation's priorities, with fierce advocacy for their home district's role in filling those priorities, but with the common good as their only motivator. This will require us to blow up the earmark process as it exists today, enact major structural budget reform, and put good of the country ahead of personal politics.

In 2009 alone, 10,160 earmarks worth $19.6 billion were requested. I believe that funding for Chickamauga Lock rises above these few examples of waste:

1. $4,545,000 for wood utilization research
2. $254,000 for the Montana Sheep Institute
3. $7,100,000 for NOAA for the conservation and recovery of endangered Hawaiian sea turtle populations
4. $550,000 for the NOAA Chesapeake Bay office for blue crab research
5. $1.9 million for the Pleasure Beach water taxi service in Connecticut
6. $1.8 million for swine odor and manure management research in Ames, Iowa

As I have stated since day one of my campaign, I am committed to the priorities of the Third District. I won't, however, pound the podium calling for a balanced budget and reducing deficit spending while advocating the use of earmarks. We already have plenty of folks in Washington doing that now. I will not say one thing while in Washington, DC and a completely different thing at home in the District. Tennesseans deserve better.

Robin Smith
Hixson
Candidate for Congress