Republicans Divided on Earmarks

By Jay Allbritton
Jan 29th 2008 5:40PM

Filed Under:ePresident Bush, House, State of the Union

Part of the modest agenda that President Bush set for the congress during his State of the Union speech was to eliminate half of all earmarks during his last year in office.

The day after, however, according to a report by Politico, Republicans "remain paralyzed by internal struggles over how to curb their addiction to spending projects."

For example, House Minority Leader John Boehner asked Democrats to commit to a six-month freeze on earmarks, while ranking member of the Appropriations Committee--Republican Thad Cochran--remained defiant. "Congress," he said in a press release, "has the sole power under the Constitution to appropriate funds for expenditure by the federal government. I will oppose any measure which in effect transfers this power to the executive branch."

After the Jump--Earmarks... Really?Did Bush really do anything with this pledge?

In response to Bush's stance, Nancy Pelosi pointed out that "When we came in, we said we'd cut earmarks in half, and we did." So, If Democrats already killed half of all earmarks in one year, isn't it reasonable to expect that they would have cut earmarks further in their second year? Seems like Bush is just taking credit for what Democrats (not all Democrats, John Murtha is the pork king) are already doing.

Of course, cutting earmarks is great. Even though they comprise less than one percent of the annual budget, they are key to influence peddling.

Thomas E. Mann, a Congressional scholar at the Brookings Institution, agrees. "The fiscal fallout of earmarks is trivial," he said. The problem is that they can lead to "conflicts of interest, the irrational and unconstructive allocation of resources, or their use by Congressional leaders as carrots and sticks to buy votes for larger measures that clearly lack majority support on the merits."

The question is, why is this an issue now?

From The Carpetbagger Report:
I'm afraid I just can't fathom why this has reached the top of the Republican list of domestic priorities. For one thing, pork-barrel spending exploded once the GOP controlled both Congress and the White House. (From the beginning of Republican rule in 1994 to the end in 2005, earmarks on appropriations bills went from 4,000 to 15,000.) Indeed, Bush has repeatedly signed spending bills overflowing with earmarks, and never felt the need to complain. Now, after six years of spending like drunken sailors, Republicans believe one of their worst habits is going to be the key to their political salvation? Really?

(more)
Elsewhere:

Erick at Red State sees an opportunity for Republicans to regain the mantle of fiscal responsibility.

The Boston Globe runsdown a litany of critics who do not buy into Bush's sudden interest in earmarks.

Last moth, blogger Bryan at Hot Air pointed out that the Democratic chair was proposing a cut of an estimated 9,500 earmarks worth about $9.5 billion before Boehner and Trent Lott rushed in to defend the earmarks.

No earmark here, just straight up big spending--Bush to ask for $70 billion more for Iraq and the House passed $146 billion in economic stimulus.

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