Saturday, December 18, 2010

End of the line for $8 billion in earmarks

WASHINGTON — Republicans on Friday reveled in a dual victory over government spending that showed off the party's resolve in the upcoming fight over the federal purse.
By finding unexpected common ground and killing a $1.3 trillion spending bill, Republican lawmakers managed to extinguish a sheaf of earmarked expenditures and rope in straying GOP colleagues who inserted them – even those who helped write the bill.

And as a result of the win, they forced Democrats to agree to consider a slimmed down, stop-gap measure that would put most major spending decisions in the hands of the next Congress, when Republicans will control the House and see their numbers swell in the Senate.
Sen. Jim DeMint, a favorite of the pro-small government tea party movement, gave rare kudos to his party. "It's a good day to be a Republican," said the South Carolina senator, as he jaunted through the halls.
The defunct legislation would have funded the government for the next fiscal year and was laced with $8 billion in spending for lawmakers' earmarks – the pet projects that have become the symbol of government waste.
Without the votes to pass the Senate, Democratic lawmakers on Friday turned to a painful plan B – the measure that would fund the government at current levels just for the immediate future. Lawmakers Friday worked toward a vote on the bill. Government funding expires Saturday.
Buoyed by the news about the spending bills, the Republican House leader and soon-to-be speaker, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, reiterated his priority of cutting federal spending back to 2008 levels.
"It's not enough to just hold the line on spending; we need to cut spending," Boehner said. "We'd like to do it as soon as possible."
The demise of the so-called omnibus spending bill was the first major legislative victory for the tea party movement and conservative advocates who have promised to flex their new muscle on budget issues.
Responding to alerts from Washington advocacy groups, such as FreedomWorks and Liberty Central, activists sent a torrent of emails and phone calls urging Republicans to oppose the bill. They billed it as a "liberal wish list" of goodies that Democrats were trying to sneak through before heading home for the holidays.
But it was not just Democrats seeking the earmarks. GOP senators requested hundreds of millions of dollars for home-state projects. They included even those members who swore off the practice just last month.
Red-faced, they argued they had sought the money before the self-imposed ban. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate GOP leader, requested $113 million in earmarks in the bill himself, according to an analysis by Taxpayers for Common Sense.
"You can't have it both ways," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters on Thursday. "I'll bet if you went to 'H' in the dictionary and found 'hypocrite,' under that would be people who ask for earmarks who vote against them."
The earmarks in the omnibus measure amounted to less than 1% of the overall bill, which also included funding for the implementation of the new healthcare and financial regulatory laws and military spending.
Republican rejection of the bill perhaps was the clearest evidence yet that the call for belt-tightening by grassroots conservatives may be changing, at least temporarily, the culture in Congress.
Exhibit A was the decision by Sen. Thad Cochran – a six-term senator who as ranking member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee is a proud defender of his ability to direct federal money home to Mississippi — to oppose the omnibus bill. Cochran secured more $561 million in earmarks in the bill, according to estimates from the nonprofit Taxpayers for Common Sense.
But on Thursday, he and all the other members of the Senate Appropriations Committee agreed to vote against the bill.
"I would like to note that we just saw a rather extraordinary event on the floor of the Senate," said Sen. John McCain in a sort of victory lap after Reid withdrew the bill.
"For those who don't understand what just happened, did we just win?" Sen. Mark Kirk, (R-Ill.), interrupted.
"I think there is very little doubt," McCain answered.
Democrats felt soundly defeated on an issue that increasingly finds them swimming against the tide. As voters have amped up calls for deficit reduction, earmarks – typically directed spending on roads, infrastructure and parochial projects – have become unpopular.
The bill included millions in earmarks sought by Sen. Richard Durbin, including $375,000 for the Alexian Brothers Hospital Network in Arlington Heights, Ill., and $13.2 million for an Army Reserve center in Rockford.
The bill also included $6.5 million to help fund a project in downtown Los Angeles to connect light-rail lines and help pay for engineering for the subway extension to the city's Westside; $5 million for repairs to Alcatraz, the notorious prison- turned-tourist attraction; and $750,000 for the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail. The bill also includes $300,000 sought by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for a ``green'' jobs training program.

sumber: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sc-dc-1218-congress-funding-20101217,0,7682486.story

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