Here are some facts that I dug up today. From a book "conservatism betrayed," which was written by somebody who touts himself as one of the founders of Reagon's economic philosophy. Pulling a big time blank on the name......something like Viguere.
I include that info in the hopes that the bush and republican apologists know that this info is coming from a conservative author.
In 1995, the last year the democrats controlled Congress, there were 1,439 earmarks.
In 2005, a decade into republican control of the house and senate, there were over 14,000 earmarks.
In the first five year of W's presidency, prok barrel earmarks increased over 121 percent.
Those are facts.....now onto my own observations:
Last summer, GWB railed against lawmakers for their earmarks. First, where was that sort of rhetoric and concern when his party cronies ran the show? Secondly, the very next day, he slipped over 100 earmarks--which were not itemized or detailed as per the new rules of Congress--worth more than $1 billion into the budget he submitted to congress.
Pork is necessary, sure, to fix roads and other public improvement projects. We need it, but like everything else there needs to accountability, oversight and responsibility. Three traits which this president and the republicans who controlled congress for over decade did not and do not have.
Will the Democrats be any better. Jury is still out, big time.
In their favor, earmarks have been reduced to 12,881 in this year's budget, so at least the number of earmarks is going down. And, unlike under Republican control, we, the public, at least now know what the earmarks are being earmarked for. In the past, they had been part of omnibus or appropriations bills, all of which required just an up or down vote, and all the spending was lumped together in one sum, so nobody would know exactly what the money was for. They had been generic earmarks. Just what we need, right? Well, at least Dems have changed the rules and these earmarks now have to be individually spelled out.
We will see if over the long haul this helps control spending. Cant ask for embarassing wasteful earmarks and just hide them in an omnibus bill anymore, for example. It seems that the media is willing to do more stories on this now as well since the info is more readily available. Maybe they will do their jobs as government watchdogs for a change. You know, instead of serving as lindsay and brittany watchdogs.
But, the problem with earmarks is the party in power loves them, the party who is not hates them. Some of the Dems, newly elected, talk about reigning this in, but get betrayed by the old school, entrenched Dems who are salivating that they control the purse strings again. Remember Murtha saying the ethics bill is crap, as an example.
It is beyond hyprocritcal to hear the current president and republican lawmakers, however, blast earmarks given how they made the problem so much worse over the last decade. Actually, a decade ago this was not even a problem. But, the numbers with them in control speak for themselves. Party of fiscal responsibility, my ass!
I do love McCain's take on this issue, even if its a little naive to say they should not exist, period. Used properly, the pork system can go a long way towards fixing our woeful infrastructure problems throughout the country. The other thing about McCain, and I have said this about him before, is where has he been the last 6-7 years. Yeah, calling out the pork spending now is good, but dont you all think he could have done a world of good on this issue while his party was still in control. Maybe he was marginalized by his cronies, I dont know, but the reason I am not a full on McCain supporter yet is that he should have taken a more adversarial role againt this president and his party, instead of sitting queitly, biding his time and not rocking the boat in prep for this presidential run.
But, I think I would trust a president like McCain or Obama with a line item veto. Actually, I would trust any possible president and any past president with a line item veto. I would not trust the current president as I feel he is more motivated by politics than any of his predesscors. And, I say that as a amateur presidental scholar. But, I think the contrast of his rhetoric and actions on this issue speaks volumes about the true quality, or lack of quality, of his presidency.
Ok, all over the map on this post, but I have been writing it in between work fires. Hope it makes sense.
Cheers!
