House Democrats Face Deadline Today on GOP Earmarks Challenge
Speaker's Hometown Newspaper Labels Democrats "The New Party of Pork"
Washington,
Feb 1, 2008 -
“The New Party of Pork” is the headline blaring in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) hometown newspaper this morning – the San Francisco Chronicle. Under the Speaker’s leadership, taxpayers have seen their hard-earned money used by Congress to help fund a hippie museum. . .an “Exploratorium”. . . and even peanut storage, buried in a troop funding bill. In fact, there were nearly 9,000 earmarks stuffed into last year’s massive year-end spending bill. Is it any wonder taxpayers are outraged?
One week ago, House GOP leaders sent Speaker Pelosi a letter, urging the Democratic Majority to join Republicans in supporting an immediate earmark moratorium and to appoint a bipartisan, bicameral joint committee to reform the earmark process and eliminate wasteful spending. But as House Democrats end their three-day caucus retreat today – the day on which GOP leaders had asked for a response – their leaders continue to refuse to answer.
Over the last week, when reporters have asked about the GOP proposal, Democratic leaders have frequently responded with obfuscation. They’ve occasionally tried to change the subject. And in general, they’ve tried to avoid the subject altogether. In other words: they’ve given House Republicans – and American taxpayers – no answer whatsoever. Perhaps that’s because, as the Speaker’s hometown newspaper noted today, the Democratic Party is now “The New Party of Pork”:
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“[T]he lesson of this dance of trading places is how quickly principles vanish when control of Congress changes hands. The Party of Pork is the party that happens to be in power at any given moment.
“This time, the Democrats are on the wrong side of an issue they once so passionately championed.”
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At last week’s annual House Republican retreat, Members held a lively and lengthy conversation on earmark reform. The issue will be a fundamental part of the GOP’s agenda this year, with Members committing to end:
· “Monuments to me,” in which Members of Congress use taxpayer money to fund projects named after themselves;
· “Airdrops,” which are earmarks inserted into bills at the last minute to avoid scrutiny; and
· “Fronts” or “pass-through” entities through which taxpayer funds are laundered to mask their true recipients.
While these reforms are just the floor of the House Republicans’ efforts on earmarks, the subject of earmark reform appears to be conspicuously missing from the Democrats’ retreat agenda – and legislative agenda – for 2008. Today’s Washington Post reports on the Majority’s plans for the year – plans that do not include earmark reform:
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“Democrats need to pass a budget. They want to pass another energy bill. They would like to pump money into the Highway Trust Fund for road projects. They may reauthorize the No Child Left Behind education law. They have to push through appropriations bills.
“Democrats also have not given up on Iraq, though they do appear to be moving away from their so-far-unsuccessful strategy of tying troop withdrawal language to money for the war.”
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In other words, as the Washington Post’s Congress blog, “Capitol Briefing”, noted earlier this week: “To sum up, it doesn’t appear that there are active plans right now to come up with a new, Democratic plan to further reform the earmark process.”
Will House Democrats really allow today’s earmark challenge deadline to come and go without a commitment to join the GOP in supporting an immediate earmark moratorium? Will they really allow the deadline to pass without offering any response at all? The clock is ticking. And the American people are waiting.
