I've posted my New Contract with America number 11 is Stop earmarks. Make lobbyist transactions transparent. This is the main reason the Republicans lost the House and Senate, to much spending. We are a conservative party that believes in smaller government. This article is what I'm talking about.
Waging War on Earmarks Last year,
incoming speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, vowed Democrats would
“bring transparency and openness to the budget process and to the use
of earmarks.” It seems Congressional Democrats’ professed appreciation for fiscal responsibility has had the life expectancy of a firefly.
Now, Democrats and Republicans are openly battling each other over
pork-barrel spending, better known as earmarks. An earmark is where a
member of Congress secures federal money for their home district,
“bringing home the bacon.”
In the House, these provisions are not debated on the floor. Instead,
they are anonymously inserted in committee reports before final
passage. The spending is then voted into law without public scrutiny.
The current earmark system is a disgrace and an invitation to
corruption.
And both parties have an embarrassing history with earmarks. Ronald
Reagan vetoed a highway-spending bill because it had over 100 earmarks
in it. Two years ago, the highway bill included over 6,000.
The American people have had it with earmarks. Polls show that one of
the reasons driving Congress’s near record-low poll numbers is their
out of control spending. Both NBC News/Wall Street Journal and
Quinnipiac University polls show congressional approval at 23%, seven
points lower than that of the president’s. For some committed
conservatives especially, this disapproval has intensified to outrage.
This outrage is one of the reasons Republicans lost power. Polls show
that a major reason, along with the Iraq war and corruption, for GOP
losses in 2006 was wasteful spending.
And frankly, some Republicans deserved to lose power. Political parties
are elected to solve problems. You get elected to do a job. When you
fail to live up to your principles and your promises, the people will
turn elsewhere.
This has nothing to do with legitimate government spending that happens
to take place in one particular district. Federal funding is needed for
some things, and that’s why Congress has constitutional spending power.
But that’s also why all earmarks should be publicly disclosed and
debated in Congress, so that necessary spending goes forward but
wasteful spending is stopped.
Instead, Congress has abused its spending power egregiously. When
someone proposes $223 million dollars to build a bridge in Alaska to
connect an island with less than 50 people to the mainland, the
infamous bridge to nowhere, voters can be expected to get angry.
The GOP has learned this painful lesson, shown by House Republicans
electing John Boehner of West Chester, OH. as their leader. v
Mr. Boehner has never asked for an earmark, and bluntly told his
constituents that if they want someone to bring home the bacon at the
national taxpayers’ expense, they should vote for someone else. His
team is working with conservative stalwarts like Mike Pence of Indiana
and the Republican Study Committee to end the process of earmarking as
we know it.
Feeling the heat last year, Republicans finally passed a reform
requiring all earmarks to be identified by their sponsor and open to
debate and to a vote on the House floor. While this is a step in the
right direction, it proved too little and too late.
Democrats used the GOP’s spending binges as a campaign issue to promise reform and take power in Congress.
Now that Democrats control both chambers, they’ve suddenly lost all interest in stopping pork-barrel spending.
In fact, the new process Democrats recently announced will actually be
more secretive and unaccountable than ever. At a recent press
conference, Mrs. Pelosi and the chairman of the committee on
appropriations, David Obey, declared that they don’t have time to
debate earmarks or even insert them into committee reports.
Instead, members must vote for spending bills first, then later this
summer they will be given the earmark list and can send written
challenges on anything they don’t like to Mr. Obey. He alone will then
decide which ones to eliminate from the House-Senate conference bill
before the conference bill vote. Those bills are voted up-or-down. They
cannot be amended.
In response, Mr. Boehner announced he will mobilize the House GOP for
an all out fight on this issue. He promised to use all his tools to
stop this new system.
The presidential candidates on one side of the aisle are also
addressing this seriously. John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and
Fred Thompson are all calling for ending secret earmarks.
And, of course, a president has the ultimate solution to the earmark
problem: He can veto a spending bill, and tell Congress he’ll only sign
it when the wasteful spending is gone. Congress would get the message
after a few vetoes. I’m happy to finally see candidates promise to do
exactly that.
Wasteful government spending has been a campaign cliché for too long.
It’s now time for action, not rhetoric. And it’s time for those
promising reform to deliver.
If the Democrats don’t reverse their course, their congressional reign
will be short and their nominee will fail. And if the GOP proves it’s
serious about fixing our nation’s spending problems, they will be back
on track to regaining the voters’ trust.
By Ken Blackwell
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
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