In the House: The pork tradition continues
The Patriot Post
The new congressional plan to require the identification of earmark sponsors has achieved nothing in curbing their widespread use, as evidenced by a water-projects bill that comfortably passed both the House and Senate last week. The House version contained 692 earmarks, and the Senate version contained 446. Removing their anonymity was supposed to make pork-barrel-spending legislators think twice about having their names tied to frivolous spending amendments that ratchet up federal budgets every year—by $19 billion in fiscal 2005 alone. Yet politics is local, and for congressmen elected locally, bringing home the bacon matters more than any stigma. The 446 earmarks in this year’s Senate bill trump the 272 earmarks contained in last year’s Republican water bill, further exposing the hypocrisy of Demo complaints over GOP pork spending in 2006.
Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) filed a resolution this week for the House to reprimand Demo loudmouth John Murtha (D-PA) for threatening to kill any earmarks Rogers introduced in any defense-appropriations bill. Murtha’s threat came after Rogers unsuccessfully tried to remove an earmark that Murtha added to the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2008 (H.R. 2082) to authorize $23 million for the National Drug Intelligence Center based in Murtha’s district. Rogers acted in line with President Bush’s desire to close the office, which has been given poor reviews by several federal review boards.
Murtha told Rogers after the vote, “I hope you don’t have any earmarks in the defense appropriations bill because they are gone, and you will not get any earmarks now and forever.” This tirade, complete with finger-pointing, came on the heels of a similar threat Murtha made to Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS), after Tiahrt voted to close a program in Murtha’s district. Murtha’s next project is to pass the 2008 intelligence bill—complete with a mandate that the intelligence community report on global warming.
The new congressional plan to require the identification of earmark sponsors has achieved nothing in curbing their widespread use, as evidenced by a water-projects bill that comfortably passed both the House and Senate last week. The House version contained 692 earmarks, and the Senate version contained 446. Removing their anonymity was supposed to make pork-barrel-spending legislators think twice about having their names tied to frivolous spending amendments that ratchet up federal budgets every year—by $19 billion in fiscal 2005 alone. Yet politics is local, and for congressmen elected locally, bringing home the bacon matters more than any stigma. The 446 earmarks in this year’s Senate bill trump the 272 earmarks contained in last year’s Republican water bill, further exposing the hypocrisy of Demo complaints over GOP pork spending in 2006.
Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) filed a resolution this week for the House to reprimand Demo loudmouth John Murtha (D-PA) for threatening to kill any earmarks Rogers introduced in any defense-appropriations bill. Murtha’s threat came after Rogers unsuccessfully tried to remove an earmark that Murtha added to the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2008 (H.R. 2082) to authorize $23 million for the National Drug Intelligence Center based in Murtha’s district. Rogers acted in line with President Bush’s desire to close the office, which has been given poor reviews by several federal review boards.
Murtha told Rogers after the vote, “I hope you don’t have any earmarks in the defense appropriations bill because they are gone, and you will not get any earmarks now and forever.” This tirade, complete with finger-pointing, came on the heels of a similar threat Murtha made to Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS), after Tiahrt voted to close a program in Murtha’s district. Murtha’s next project is to pass the 2008 intelligence bill—complete with a mandate that the intelligence community report on global warming.
posted by Andy W. Rogers | 8:58 PM
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