Remember way back to May and June. Yeah, it’s a long time ago but you can do it. Way back then, top GOP leaders were all saying how bad pork-barrel spending was. They vowed to wage a war on “earmark” funds from any and all spending bills.
Like all “wars” the GOP party has declared in the last year (remember the “war on poverty”
this one ended as soon as the spending bills hit the floor.
40 attempts made this year to rid spending bills of special-interest “earmarks” were blocked by the same people who claimed to see how bad they were for the budget. Fiscal conservatives tried to keep the battle going, but it’s hard to do when your party has been taken over by big government neo-cons.
Three GOP House of Representative leaders, Dennis Hastert, John Boehner, and Roy Blunt, have not voted against any projects that the fiscal conservatives tried to challenge. Hastert supported a $2.5 million project for the Illinois Technology Transition Center which was easily approved.
House leaders continue to claim that they are getting rid of the pork, yet they supported such projects as $500,000 to renovate a Banning, California municipal swimming pool, $1 million to Pennsylvania for a locomotive demonstration, $180,000 for tomato production in Ohio, and $1.4 million for Connecticut’s Mystic Aquarium.
Representative Jeff Flake , (R- Arizona) has been voting against the earmarks and says this of his party
It’s tough to take seriously that kind of talk when we see these votes. I’m amazed that people are willing to go on record supporting some of these earmarks. It just shows how addicted we are to this sort of spending.
Flake intends to attempt to bring this problem out in the open when a bill covering labor, healthcare, and human-services programs that is filled with special-interests’ earmarks comes to the House floor later this month. He plans to force a vote on all of the 1,000 plus earmarks unless the sponsors of the earmarks are publicly identified. If the sponsors are not identified Flake’s plan would take days and keep all other legislative business off the House floor.
Flake stated:
I’m guaranteeing a challenge on every earmark that doesn’t have a name. We have to change this system. This is a black eye for all of us.
“For all of us” is right. Only about 50 fiscal conservatives have been voting against these earmarks so far. That means that both parties are addicted to pork barrel spending.
Personally, I hope Flake follows through with his plan. If members of Congress had to fess up to the earmarks they’ve added to bills, maybe they would think a bit more about what they were doing.
durante vita says:
This is one of those things where I wonder what I would do. I might be anti-pork right now, but if I were in office, could I secure funding for my constituency and pass it off as doing my job? Just some thoughts.
7/8/2006, 2:09 pmLaura says:
That’s part of the reason I’d like to see them have to attach their names to the earmarks. Not all pork is bad, but there are a lot out there that are outright insane (like Alaska’s bridge to nowhere). If they had to put their name down, they just might think about the pork they are adding to the bill.
jan says:
I’ve been involved in so many education and civic groups where we have questioned spending money on a certain project and someone will say, “It isn’t going to cost us anything. It’s federal money.”
Huh?
I’ve seen federally funded tree lined dividers with automatic sprinklers put on streets in cities where the city couldn’t afford to fix potholes. I’ve seen thousands spent on projectors in departments where we didn’t have enough money to buy basic reference books.But if it is federal money, we have to spend it the way the feds say.
I’m afraid the only pork taxpayers are against is the other guy’s pork.
7/8/2006, 11:40 pmmw says:
It’s not a Republican vs. Democrat issue. This is just one more tool that imcumbents use to stay in power and stifle challengers and the Democratic process. This was made crytstal clear in last weeks Lieberman Lamont debate where Lieberman was bragging about the earmarks and pork he brings to Connecticut while Lamont was taking a principled stand. Transcipt and and a short Youtube video with commentary on this issues are on my most recent blog post:
7/9/2006, 10:50 amhttp://westanddivided.blogspot.com/2006/07/to-earmark-or-not-to-earmark-that-is.html
Jon says:
I agree the the probelm with pork is neither a Republican nor Democrat issue, but a way to keep in power (re-elected). There are ways to be sure your constituents are taken care of without laying down and allowing so much pork (earmarks) to be attached to spending bills to wins votes for other bills..
7/9/2006, 12:25 pm