Every day we’re bombarded with ads touting Sen. Susan Collins’ prowess securing funding for Maine-based projects. While those who benefit might thank the senator for showering “congressionally directed spending” on them, citizens of every other state call this by a simpler and more expressive name, pork.

“Pork barrel politics refers the legislative practice of slipping funding for a local project into a broader budget, even when said project may have little or nothing to do with the larger bill. Often, this funding may primarily benefit the legislator’s home district, serving to garner or preserve political support among constituents.”

Apparently, Sen. Collins believes that “bringing home the bacon” is the highest calling for a U.S. senator.

Unfortunately, her weekly newsletters are silent on other issues. Little is said about how to pay down our ballooning $39 trillion national debt, the interest on which now exceeds the defense department budget; how to increase Social Security funding that, within a decade, will be inadequate to meet obligations; why our for-profit healthcare system costs more per capita than in any other developed country, yet achieves far less healthy outcomes; and how to address yawning wealth and income inequality, increasing due to a broken tax code. Even Thomas Jefferson recognized that extreme wealth inequality is democracy’s bane. 

These are but a small sampling of the important issues we face as a nation, yet Sen. Collins and her Republican Party colleagues choose to ignore them all. I am hopeful that Maine voters will not again reward the old and tired politics practiced by our “Queen of Pork” senator and instead look to candidates actually discussing the real issues we face.

Might I suggest an oyster farmer from Sullivan?

Mark Love
Falmouth