In "Tea? Yes Party? Not so Much, I Hope," I talked about a coming dust up involving the Tea Partiers and the GOP. Looks like some people have been getting some mail from constituents:
"The GOP caucus in the House of Representatives has come together to propose a ban on congressional earmakrks -- those pork barrel projects that get written in by an individual legislator and which do not face specific up or down votes.... At first, Senate GOP leaders balked at the idea, but the writing is on the wall.... As reported by FoxNews.com, on Monday, Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell signed on to a two-year moratorium on earmarks."
McConnell was the K-Street Republican most in the way of earmark reform. His capitulation deprives the Tea Partiers of both a teaching moment, and a hard shot at the GOP. As it happens, however, likely Alaskan Sen. Lisa Murkowski [I-$$$] is unapologetic about her embrace of this corrupt culture, and Senate Democrats led by Harry Reid [still D-NV with a big bullseye] is also digging in.
Earmarks may still become a teaching moment - but a far more partisan one. We'll see how it goes.
Oh this is going to be very interesting. The K-streeters are confident that with the election behind them, the Tea-partiers have gotten all that angst out of their systems and they can get on with the business of corrupting the new crop and robbing the till. They could be right.
If not, we're in for a learning experience on civics that should be very enlightening. The apologists have taken a line of defense that should indeed be taken at face value... and demolished.
These guys claim that if they don't earmark their bills up, unelected bureaucrats in the executive will decide where the money goes, shifting the balance of power. This is about the equivalent of saying if I don't drink this twelve-pack some drunk might get his hands on it.
There are two very obvious solutions that should be repeatedly presented against this argument: 1.so de-fund the project in question, then nobody gets the goodies. 2.debate the funding in committee and vote on it.
The lie here is that providing funding for your district is an earmark. No- providing funding for your district by sneaking it in in the dead of night without a discussion much less a vote and tagging it to other legislation guaranteed to pass.. that is an earmark. The point is- fight it out on capitol hill the way the system intends it.