In case you’ve missed it, the senate race is underway in Mississippi. Senator Thad Cochran — a 35-year incumbent — is challenged by State Senator Chris McDaniel. This is shaping up to be Cochran’s biggest fight since he won the seat in 1978. McDaniel enjoys wide support from Tea Party groups, and Cochran has a strong hold on support from the establishment. It is a microcosm of the fighting within the Republican Party at large.
   Cochran announced in December that he intended to run for re-election, and among the positive feedback, Mississippi’s Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann responded by saying, “Obviously, if you look from the Thad Cochran Medical Center here to the Natchez Trace to the University of Mississippi to the Delta for agriculture, you see Thad Cochran’s work here … He’s served the state very well.”
  According to a 2008 report from the Tennessee Commercial Appeal, there wasn’t a single university in America to receive more federal earmarks than Mississippi State University or the University of Mississippi (Because everything is a competition, MSU received more than TSUN.) Our state’s universities owe most of this money to the work of Cochran.
    The report went on to say Cochran has delivered more money to his state than any other congressman or senator in the nation. Additionally, he has more government buildings and programs named after him than any current member of Congress.
 Cochran has clearly made a career of sending copious amounts of federal money back home to the state. And we’ve come to rely on the money. To put into perspective Mississippi’s reliance on federal dollars, about 49 percent of Mississippi’s state budget is comprised of federal funds — the highest percentage in the nation.
    So the question is: can we make it without Cochran? If you ask a Cochran supporter, he or she will begin to list off all of his financial accomplishments for our state and conclude the answer is no. But the truth is a resounding yes.
   Our state will not cease to function if Cochran is not re-elected. To the contrary, we will be just fine. The real question we need to ask is can our country afford to have senators that have made a career of spending money the way Thad Cochran does. Cochran might help to keep our state flush in the short-term, but our federal government’s out-of-control spending will haunt our nation  long term. Our country cannot continue down the fiscal path on which it has been.  
   When Cochran first went to Washington, the national debt was $420 billion. Today, America’s national debt currently sits at $17.5 trillion.  The spending habits of Cochran and his peers have caused us to be saddled with this massive debt.
   Many Mississippi Republicans might say, “We need to cut federal spending, but just don’t cut it here in Mississippi.” It’s that type of hypocrisy that keeps our debt crises as predictably cyclical as they have become.
  All told, Cochran has been a good senator for Mississippi. He’s a good statesman, and according to those around him, he’s an even better person. But Mississippi does not exist in a bubble. Every dollar of federal money we get adds to the federal debt and will have to be paid back in future taxes.
  This cycle of spending is no longer sustainable. Our nation has to make changes. And here in Mississippi, it should either be our senator’s spending habits or our senator.