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Obama, Clinton join McCain vs. earmarks

March 10th, 2008
By PAUL SILVER

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It’s only a one year moratorium, but it’s a start. Earmarks aren’t a big deal in the larger scale of budget issues, and many of them may even be good investments in the national interest. But while the GOP would like to think that they are seizing this issue to their advantage I would point out that it was under GOP control that earmarks exploded out of reason, and now, under Democratic leadership, it is being contained.



This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 5:09 pm and is filed under Budget. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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    Well, there's another whopper that I have to call you on, Paul. If you want to make the case that divided govt works best to control corrupt practices like earmarking, I'll agree with you. From the Citizens Against high road and refrained from attempts to add pork to bills):

    This year’s Pig Book breaks a run of seven consecutive years of record dollar amounts of pork, culminating in $29 billion in the 2006 Congressional Pig Book. This lesser barrel of pork can be attributed to the efforts of Senators Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who prevented the enactment of nine appropriations bills in December, 2006, and the subsequent moratorium on earmarks announced and enforced by the House and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairmen David Obey (D-Wis.) and Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) in H. J. Res. 20, the bill that funds the government for the remainder of fiscal 2007.


    Now, without dispute, those three Republican senators should have been working as hard to block the pork when their own party was in the majority- but it's also indisputable that the decrease in pork spending last year came about because of their efforts, which forced the Dems to get back on track.
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    I agree that those Legislators made a difference, but it remains that their colleagues and leadership didn't respond to them but the Democrats have. At least the Democrats can be embarrassed into doing the right thing.

    Also it was part of my point that Tom Delay is the one who spearheaded the dramatic increase in earmarks to begin with.
 
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