I’ll believe it when I see it
Posted by BrianThe Dems plan on stripping out all pork projects from the spending bills that were dropped on their lap by the GOP.
Democrats tidying up a cluster of unfinished spending bills dumped on them by departing Republican leaders in Congress will start by removing billions of dollars in lawmakers’ pet projects next month.
The move, orchestrated by the incoming chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations committees, could prove politically savvy even as it proves unpopular with other members of Congress, who as a group will lose thousands of so-called earmarks.
“There will be no congressional earmarks,” Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said Monday in a statement announcing their plans, which were quickly endorsed by incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D- Nev.
I applaud their effort, although my cynical side says that they are only doing so for two reasons. One, to make room for their own pork projects. Two, to use the GOP’s projects as leverage down the line (I’ll give you this project if you vote my way). I’m particularly skeptical about their intentions when I see Robert “The King of Pork” Byrd’s name attributed to that quote.
But hey, maybe the Dems are going to shame the GOP a bit by illustrating what fiscal conservatism looks like.
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December 12th, 2006 at 10:23 am
I think this is mostly due to that huge spending/tax break bill that the outgoing Congress rammed through during the last minute. It left them with a huge budget problem that they’ll have to go in and fix (somehow). They’ve promised not to raise taxes, and even if they take back cuts from the top 1% of earners (not the middle class and lower), it will be spun as a tax increase. So they have a huge problem– How do you fix it without raising taxes or cutting benefits? Pork was the only quick solution currently available. From there, they’ll need to reign in on future spending. We’ll see how it goes.