Eliminating Earmarks is a Phony Issue

Sen. Inhofe: Proposed Earmark Ban "Trashes The Constitution"
Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) isn't keen on his party's demonization of Earmarks. In an op-ed in Politico today, Inhofe writes that a proposed Moratorium on congressional Earmarks "trashes the Constitution and violates our oath of office." In yet another editorial in National Review, he points out that Earmarks account for a small slice of all Discretionary Spending. "Talk about specks versus planks," he writes. Demagoguing Earmarks provides cover for some of the biggest spenders in Congress. Congres...

Jeff Flake - An earmark fight Congress doesn't need
Last week Sen. Mitch McConnell played down the chances of an earmark Moratorium in the Senate next year by saying, "I'm sure the president would love to have a legislative blank check." You've heard appropriators make that argument before: If Congress gives up Earmarks, it will be surrendering its power of the purse to the Executive Branch, ceding its authority under Article I of the Constitution by permitting the administration to decide the country's funding priorities. Nothing c...

How earmarks weaken Congress
Last week Sen. Mitch McConnell played down the chances of an earmark Moratorium in the Senate next year by saying, "I'm sure the president would love to have a legislative blank check." You've heard appropriators make that argument before: If Congress gives up Earmarks, it will be surrendering its power of the purse to the Executive Branch, ceding its authority under Article I of the Constitution by permitting the administration to decide the country's funding priorities. Nothing c...

Meet James Madison, Senator Inhofe
In an effort to defend Earmarks and fight off a proposed Moratorium, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), who has apparently fallen in love with the smell of the marble in the Halls of Congress, invokes James Madison in defense of the practice: Earmarks have been part of the congressional process since the founding of our country. As James Madison, the father of the Constitution viewed it, appropriating funds is the job of the legislature. Writing in the Federalist, he noted that Congress holds the power o...

Dueling Earmark Op-Eds
With a key vote on Earmarks slated for next Tuesday in the Senate Republican Conference, Republican leaders are having it out on whether their party should eschew earmarking or continue the practice. The debate centers on the division of power between Congress and the Executive Branch. On NRO’s “The Corner” blog, Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) calls Earmarks a “phony issue.” Doing away with Earmarks doesn’t reduce spending. It sim...

Tea Party-Aligned Senators Push to Ban Earmarks - WSJ.com
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Pressure increases to pass earmark moratorium
Senate Republicans are feeling the pressure from the Tea Party movement on imposing a Moratorium on Earmarks, which is set for a vote on Tuesday, November 16th: Tea Party Patriots (TPP), a National umbrella organization of Local Tea Party groups, is asking its members to call Republican senators and demand that they agree in a Caucus vote next Tuesday to forgo all Earmarks in the upcoming Congress. In an e-mail to their 134,000 online members headlined, “Our first battle with the newly emp...

Earmark Reform: Who Decides How Tax Money is Spent?
My colleague Dodd makes a strong argument as to why “ Earmark Reform Isn’t Just Symbolism ” but rather a tool to substantially reduce wasteful spending by the Federal government and return power to local authorities. It’s reasonable to assume that eliminating Earmarks could well reduce costs beyond the trivial portion of the Federal Budget that’s actually earmarked since,  presumably, Congressmen would have less incentive to press for massive projects if they c...

Johanns joins move to ban earmarks
Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) said Friday he will support a proposal to ban Earmarks for two years.  "The current earmark process is simply not open, transparent, or merit-based and I intend to support the proposed two-year ban on Earmarks for Senate Republicans," Johanns said in a statement. "We must leave no doubt about our commitment to Fiscal Responsibility, which is why I have never requested Earmarks."   Republican Sen. Jim DeMint (S.C.) is leading the charge to ban Earmarks and will prop...

Earmarks, Schmearmarks
Fri Nov. 12, 2010 11:08 AM PST I am, of course, thrilled to see Conservatives beating each other senseless over earmark reform. They've spent years demagoguing Democrats over it, and the spectacle of Sen. James Inhofe now complaining that he's being demagogued over Earmarks is pretty priceless. Still, Inhofe makes an unassailable point: Earmarks direct Spending, they don't increase it. Actual overall appropriation levels are set separately, and Earmarks merely take a bit of spending authority a...

The secret about earmarks (Politico)
Shhhh! There’s a secret about Earmarks: Eliminating them won’t save Taxpayers one dime. Instead, the money gets turned back to President Barack Obama so he can direct Spending as he sees fit. In light of this, it is no wonder that Obama is willing to support the ban and join the Republicans senators who for years have demagogued about congressional Earmarks. On Election Day the American People sent the message to Washington that it is time to reduce Government Spending, Repeal Obama...

House GOP Spending Plan Would Force States To Make Deeper Cuts In Education, Housing, and Transportation
House GOP Spending Plan Would Force States To Make Deeper Cuts In Education, Housing, and Transportation In their “Pledge to America,” House Republicans insist that one of the ways in which they plan to reduce the Federal Deficit is rolling non-defense Discretionary Spending back to the 2008 level. As Rep. Kevin Mccarthy (R-CA) put it when pressed for specific Budget items that he would cut, “the line item will be across the board.” Of course, this practically means th...

Earmark Reform Isnt Just Symbolism
This argument has serious logical inconsistencies. The fact is Earmarks do spend real money. If they didn’t spend money, why defend them? Stopping an activity that spends money does result in less Spending. It’s that simple. For instance, Congress spent $16.1 Billion on pork in Fiscal Year 2010. If Congress does not do Earmarks in 2011, we could save $16.1 Billion. In no way is Congress locked into to shifting that $16.1 Billion to other programs unless it wants to. It’s true t...

GOP wants Obama veto of earmarks - Jonathan Allen
The top two House Republican Leaders are calling on President Barack Obama to Veto any spending bill containing Earmarks, raising the stakes in a battle to claim purity on project-specific spending by Congress. The joint statement, issued by incoming House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and incoming Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), pre-empts an embargoed weekly radio address by Obama in which he will criticize Earmarks that are not given thorough vetting. Continue Reading Text Size - + r...

Lend Me Your Earmarks
Nov 13, 2010, Vol. 16, No. 10 • By KENNETH Y. TOMLINSON Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. Every time I hear Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell dismiss concerns over earmarking, I think of his fellow Kentucky Republican Hal Rogers, the senior House appropriator who has loaded pork into the federal Budget. Rogers, who hails from the mountains of eastern Kentucky, is the ranking member on the appropriations subcommittee that funds Homeland Security. After 9/11...

Obamas Radio Address Highlights Earmarks.gov Web Site to Increase Transparency on Govt Wasting Billions of Taxpayer Money
Saturday, November 13, 2010 By Penny Starr President Barack Obama meeting with his staff and Cabinet members in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 4, 2010. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is at left, and Chief of Staff Pete Rouse is at center. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) (CNSNews.com) - In his weekly radio address, President Barack Obama announced an update of the administration’s Web site, www.Earmarks.gov, to help shed light on “W...

The "unserious" deficit commission proposal
This is a few days old, but still an excellent explanation of the deficiencies of the draft proposal released this week from the catfood commission chairs, from Kevin Drum. He starts with this chart from the Congressional Budge Office: Here's what the chart means: Discretionary Spending (the light blue bottom chunk) isn't a long-term Deficit problem. It takes up about 10% of GDP forever. What's more, pretending that it can be capped is just game playing: anything one Congress can do, another ca...

Downsizing the Federal Government
Following last week’s electoral victory, the House Republican leadership has been talking up its pre-election pledge to return Federal Spending to 2008 levels. As I’ve previously discussed, the Republicans are only talking about non-security, Discretionary Spending. This category of Spending represents a relatively small portion of the overall Federal Budget, and would only shave about $100 Billion off of what the president wants to spend. A better idea would be to cut total Spending...

Earmark dispute splits GOP senators
WASHINGTON — Even as they prepare to welcome 13 newly elected Republicans into their ranks, GOP senators have already fired the opening salvos in an intraparty ideological battle over Federal Spending — one that threatens to divide the upper chamber’s Old Bulls and newer Tea Party-aligned members. South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, a champion of conservative Candidates like Florida’s Marco Rubio and Utah’s Mike Lee, announced Tuesday that he will push Senate Repu...

No More Earmarxists
“Earmarks are certainly not the only issue, but they are the most telling as to whether Republicans really have learned their lesson in the minority.” As I write this, Mitch McConnell is privately trying to get enough votes to kill an Earmarks Moratorium among Senate Republicans. The measure is sponsored by Senators Coburn, Cornyn, DeMint, Ensign, and Enzi, along with Senators-Elect Ayotte, Johnson, Paul, Rubio, and Toomey. Senators McConnell, Inhofe, and others say Earmarks make up...

Time to put and end to Earmarks
The only money Government has to spend is that which it takes from its citizens, and that which it borrows and prints to the detriment of its citizens. Government does not create wealth, it consumes wealth.  Power springs from influence, and what better way to influence a group of constituents than to send piles of money their way?  It's a great deal for career politicians, because the money they're Spending doesn't come out of their own pocket (it comes out of yours), and the recipien...

Federalism, Anyone?
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. This past week, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson released a draft report that delivered this unsettling news: “We must stabilize then reduce The National Debt, or we could spend $1 Trillion a year in interest alone by 2020.” That number looks all The scarier when one considers that The entire Federal Budget this past year was $3.6 Trillion. As co-chairmen of The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, Bow...

Tea Partiers vs. GOP on Earmarks: A Sucker's Debate
It makes sense that the first Tea Party-versus-the-GOP dust-up would be over congressional Earmarks -- because this is really a dumb debate. I know that sounds uncivil and condescending. But it's the truth. Tea Party Republicans seeking a suspension of Earmarks are conning their followers. Perhaps not purposefully. They may not understand the matter. Here's the key fact: those much-denounced Earmarks have little to do with the level of Government Spending. They are legislative tools used after C...