Pounding On Pork
Senate Republicans are starting to get serious about stomping on pork barrel spending, according to The Politico. It is still very much a bi-partisan problem, but more and more often these days, fights are breaking out over some of the more egregious examples of Washington waste. They are getting allies outside Washington as well.
A multilevel operation aimed at harnessing the power of the Internet represents the most coordinated attack yet on earmarks, considered a cornerstone of legislative dealmaking for the way they have been used to induce votes and curry favor with supporters.
Once the domain of a few ostracized junior senators, earmark targeting is now in vogue, with Senate Republican leaders eager to gain traction in the minority.
They are embracing veteran critics of earmarking, such as Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), who are, in turn, pressing their case on six social networking sites and with an online petition and a newly formed caucus.
Nonpartisan groups aid the cause by dumping databases onto the Web, nudging anybody with a computer to play detective and call in tips on egregious-looking earmarks.
“We got a tag team going: people on the outside, people running blogs, producers in talk radio trying to find some of these earmarks,” said DeMint, who also has two to five members of his staff scouring bills at all times.
Given the entrenched nature of earmarks, the victories on amendments targeting specific projects have been few. But that’s not really the point, say Republican senators and aides.
“The goal is not to win these votes as much as it is to educate the public about the real problem, which is Congress’ refusal to prioritize spending in a responsible manner,” said Coburn’s spokesman, John Hart.
That's a good thing. Voters - regardless of any party affiliation - should be against this misuse of our money. All too many of the earmarks are tainted by questionable campaign contributions. That is bad for all of us.
By quilly mammoth, Tuesday, 13 November , 2007 @ 12:57 pm
But if we don’t have earmarks important things like the Hippie Museum at Woodstock will never happen!
/sarc