The Pork Shall Inherit The Earth
Or at least the US Senate. Democrats in the Senate have blocked a vote on the Gregg amendment that would have at least exposed some of the most egregious pork stuffed merrily into unrelated bills.
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell issued the following statement on Wednesday after the Senate Democrats blocked U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg’s A Second Look at Wasteful Spending amendment from coming to a vote:
“Democrats campaigned for the last two years on reform, yet blocked a commonsense measure designed to do just that. Twenty Democrats currently in the Senate supported a similar measure when it was proposed in 1995, yet today they refused to allow even a simple yes-or-no vote. Americans demanded reform and we owe it to them. If we are going to continue to pass real reforms, we must put politics aside and get to work.”
I signed on to Porkbusters a very short time after it was formed. I did so not because of partisanship but because pork barrel spending is bad for this country and bad for our political system in particular. And Porkbusters is actually very non-partisan if you look at the roster. The fact that Senators like Robert Byrd have been feathering their nests with pure pork for years should be something to be ashamed of. Byrd is proud of his status as the king of pork. The Democrats who blocked this need their names publicized. Then those of us on either side of the political spectrum in this country who despise pork should heap as much scorn on them as we can.
UPDATE: Looks pretty much like a clean sweep. All the Democrats appear to have voted against cloture.
By guy, Wednesday, 24 January , 2007 @ 6:28 pm
Yea: Bayh (D-IN)
Nay: Shelby (R-AL)
By Gaius, Wednesday, 24 January , 2007 @ 6:33 pm
Missed those, Thanks.