Politics in Albany (and elsewhere)

Gannett News Service reports:

Gov. George Pataki and state lawmakers have pushed New York $1.7 billion farther into debt by borrowing money to pay for projects like Little League fields and parking lots in affluent communities through a secret, politically driven system, a watchdog group says.

The article goes on to report:

. . . the borrowing for such projects has driven state debt, now about $48 billion, to "dangerous levels," and that the money is unevenly distributed around the state. For example, while Albany County has gotten almost $1,100 per person with this spending, largely because of the heavy state investment in nanotech research at Albany University, SUNY, Westchester has gotten only $27 per person, Putnam $49, Rockland $40 and New York City $29.

Read the rest of the story here.

While at the national level, reports The Washington Post:

As long as there is no explicit quid pro quo, lawmakers can channel clients to lobbyists, who help secure home-district pet projects, or "earmarks," and in turn, those lobbyists can send part of their fees back in the form of campaign contributions.

The article also notes:

Proposals pending before the House and Senate would force lawmakers to reveal their contacts with lobbyists and disclose their involvement in winning federal spending provisions or earmarks for constituents or special interests. If such disclosures become mandatory, some in Congress hope past practices will shrivel in the light of day.

Read the rest here.

But before you get discouraged, go to this article, by columnist Mark Shields, who writes about why he believes in politics:

I believe in the politics that wrote the G.I. Bill, that passed the Marshall Plan to rebuild a war-devastated Europe, that saved the Great Lakes and that through Social Security took want and terror out of old age. The kind of politics that teaches us all we owe to those who came before us and those who will come after. That each of us has drunk from wells we did not dig; that each of us has been warmed by fires we did not build.

At their worst, politicians -- just like the rest of us -- can be petty, venal and self-centered. But I believe politics, at its best, can help make ours a world where the powerful are more just and the weak are more secure.