News on Joni Ernst's latest gimmick
Also, finding hope in those who stand up to Donald Trump
Joni Ernst keeps trying to con people into thinking she’s a fiscal conservative.
Her latest scheme: A bill to ban government spending on “swag.” These are promotional items like buttons, keychains and tote bags that often are handed out at career fairs and shopping malls. The US military and the Census Bureau like swag.
Last week, Ernst sent out a news release deriding spending on “mascots, trinkets and trash” and tied it to a recent media report that said the government spends $1.8 billion a year on advertising.
Her rightwing media allies took the cue and ran with it, suggesting the government is spending all that money on candy, comic books, mascots and swag.
This is clearly not true. The government actually spends about $1.5 billion a year on advertising, not swag, and a big chunk of it is spent by the military, including on recruitment.
Still, reports in the New York Post and Daily Mail did what they were supposed to do: They pushed the phony idea that Ernst is a serious budget hawk.
Neither publication delved deeply into the details of Ernst’s proposed legislation, and that’s probably a good thing for the Iowa senator. If they had, they’d have seen the bill is practically useless.
The measure excludes swag related to military recruiting and conducting the Census. The so-called swag ban also doesn’t apply to spending that generates a “positive return on investment.” Which, according to the bill’s language, means it meets “agency or program goals.”
I think this is how they spell, “gigantic loophole” in Washington, D.C.
This isn’t the first time Ernst has tried this gimmick. She proposed a similar ban on swag five years ago, but it didn’t even get out of the Senate. Even though her party controlled the Senate at the time. This shouldn’t have been hard to accomplish. But Ernst couldn’t even get that done.
Even if you believe Ernst is fighting government waste, you have to admit she isn’t very good at it.
Ernst says the government spends “millions” on swag. That may be true, but I don’t know for sure. Ernst’s claims often turn out to be false. Either way, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, noting the exclusions in the bill five years ago, said that it would have had an “insignificant net effect on spending.”
I should also note at this point that there is a certain irony to Ernst’s swag proposal, given that the Daily Show once proclaimed her the “queen of prop comedy.”
As I’ve said before, the bottom line is this: Joni Ernst is not a serious fiscal conservative.
Spending has risen 65% since she’s been in the Senate. The debt has doubled. She routinely votes for mammoth defense bills, even though the Defense Department has been on the Government Accountability Office’s high-risk list for financial mismanagement for 30 years; she backed US spending on Ukraine (which I actually support, but a lot of Republicans don’t). She supported Trump’s Covid bills, including a measure in late 2020 that many members of Congress didn’t even bother to read but still approved.
Not only that, but real government watchdogs warned Ernst and others in Congress the previous Covid spending they’d approved was primed for fraud. Yet so-called conservative lawmakers ignored those warnings. Ernst’s opposition to Covid spending only began when Joe Biden became president.
In the meantime, the Iowa senator spends her time targeting a relatively small number of low-level Internal Revenue Service employees who missed deadlines or underpaid their taxes, all the while ignoring government contractors who have continued to gobble up federal money even though they owed hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid taxes.
Ernst is up for re-election next year, and if she faces a primary, she’ll no doubt brag about being a fiscal conservative, uttering the word “DOGE” a lot and waving around headlines like those in the New York Post and Daily Mail.
Don’t believe it.
The truth is, Joni Ernst wants to cut some spending, but for health care, education and other programs that help people. Yet, she’ll still spend hundreds of billions of dollars on other federal programs, and she’ll continue to vote to run up the ever-growing debt. She’ll also work to help the wealthy dodge paying their taxes, while proposing do-nothing bills to get headlines. None of this promotes conservatism. All it really does is promote Joni Ernst.
Standing up to Trump
I’m not the first to say this, but the cruelty and chaos Donald Trump has unleashed on the US since taking office is no accident.
Pardoning violent insurrectionists, freezing government programs, mass firings and threats against career civil servants and government watchdogs. Each hour brings a new headline demonstrating the vengeance, incompetence and confusion Trump has unloaded on the nation.
This is by design.
The idea is to try to frighten, bully and bludgeon his opponents into submission; to convince them it is futile to resist.
I see the fear in my social media feeds. Patriots who love this country are despondent at what Trump is doing, and what he may have planned next.
Some are tending to disengage, if only to keep their sanity.
I understand the feeling. But I also see brave patriots who have not silenced their voices, who every day are calling out the un-American activities the new president is engaged in.
Last week, I wrote how I found inspiration in Episcopalian Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s plea for mercy at Washington National Cathedral and the exhortation that we all extend a hand to those who are in fear. To show them the mercy that God demands of us.
This week, I find inspiration from a different source: Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who made it clear Sunday that despite Trump’s threats, the people of Illinois and their government won’t back down; they won’t break the law to help the administration’s mass deportation plan.
As Politico reported:
Of violent criminals, (Pritzker) said, “We don’t want them in our state. We want them out of the country. We hope they do get deported, and if that’s who they’re picking up, we’re all for it.” ….
But Pritzker also added:
We have a law on the books in Illinois that says that our local law enforcement will stand up for those law-abiding, undocumented people in our states who are doing the right thing, and we’re not going to help federal officials just drag them away just because” someone thinks they could be in the country illegally, he said.
He also was resolute in blasting Trump’s clumsy and chaotic order to freeze grants and other federal aid this week. “What Donald Trump tried to do in the last 24 hours is illegal,” Pritzker said Tuesday.
A judge temporarily blocked the freeze on Tuesday, and the White House rescinded the order Wednesday, though there was still confusion what this meant.
For those who are afraid or despondent, find strength in the courage of leaders who are standing up to the bullying and showing their loyalty to our values, the law and the US Constitution.
The way you deal with a bully is to confront him. Trump may have power, but he’s still a weak man.
The Office Lounge is back
The Office Lounge returns this Friday. This is the once-monthly Zoom meeting the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative holds with its paying subscribers. The meeting will be at noon on Friday.
The Office Lounge is a chance to hear members of the collaborative discuss their work and for readers to ask questions and offer ideas of their own. (In case you don’t know, the name of the gathering is inspired by a Des Moines tavern, where reporters and editors from the Des Moines Register would gather.)
If you’re not a paying subscriber, please consider signing up.
This not only will support my work but will allow you to join the Office Lounge.
I have put the link to the meeting below.
Along the Mississippi is a proud member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Please check out the work of my colleagues and consider subscribing. Also, the collaborative partners with the Iowa Capital Dispatch, which provides hard-hitting news along with selected commentary by members of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Please consider making a donation to support its work, too.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Along the Mississippi to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.