Phil Hare on Pork and Warren County Illinois

Hare not afraid to ask for earmarks from Daily Review Atlas

"I don't shy away from the term earmark. I have community colleges, police that need equipment ... we want to fix levees and highways — if that's pork, give me the knife and fork," he said. "If you don't ask, you don't get it."

In his opinion, Congress had three options. They could do nothing and let the market correct itself. They could focus on tax breaks and hope the money trickled down — which he contented was the policy for the last eight years that helped create the financial mess. Or, they could pass a stimulus bill that, while not perfect, would put people back to work and help prevent the foreclosure of 2 million homes.

"It won't fix all the problems ... but it will get people working again," Hare said.

He said the number of unemployed people in the country is now equal to a city the size of Chicago.

"I will make some mistakes, but I'd rather err on the side of doing something," he said.

He said for every dollar invested in infrastructure, the area gets five dollars back. Hare predicted the biggest boon for the Warren County area would be the money set aside for alternative energy, such as biodiesel, ethanol, solar and wind energy.

A FICA tax cut or holiday would have flooded income into the hands of working people. Let's watch what Hare's investment in technology in Warren county brings us. If those investments go sour and if maybe we had been better off turning that trickle of a tax cut into a real cut.