The three members of Great Falls Tribune Editorial Board posted their opinion today about the earmark moratorium proposed by the GOP in Congress. They are against it. Big time.

They could have titled the opinion, “Keep Your Hands Off Our Junk” but instead called it “In defense of needed federal earmarks.”

They use the basis of their argument that it won’t do anything about the federal deficit (in other words, a moratorium in the Tribune’s eyes won’t save much money).

It’s no wonder that newspapers across the country are going broke.

They also say a moratorium gives too much power to the Executive Branch. They forgot that President Obama has said he agrees with Republicans and Democrats who say we can’t afford earmarks.

They list a few of the Montana projects that are earmark requests…and they have published a few articles recently about how these projects will help the state – kind of the tug at their readers’ heartstrings angle.

Ironically, the Tribune Editorial Board did not mention the November 16 question where they asked readers, “Should earmarks be banned?” 82% of the people responding said yes. There were 665 votes.

Just a small town newspaper, living in a lonely world…

Today, we may finally see if Senator Jon Tester is for or against the earmark moratorium. As a candidate, he was against earmarks. As a senator, he’s drank from the earmark trough like a pig going for slop in the barnyard.

If Tester votes to continue earmarks, he’s just made it a lot easier for his opponents to frame him as a big spender (it’s already not too hard to do with all the spending that’s happened under his watch).

I’ve said it many times before, it’s time to stop the spending and a moratorium on earmarks is a good start. It is only a start and it’s time for people (including the Tribune Editorial Board) to realize that the Federal government needs to grow up and stop spending like a teenager with a new credit card.