Instapundit has this:
PORKBUSTERS UPDATE:
The playground bully in the Senate _ the Appropriations Committee _ actually took a loss last week at the hands of senators determined to strip so-called pork barrel projects from a bill that's supposed to be devoted to the war in Iraq and hurricane relief.
And the House this week will vote on requiring members to attach their names to "earmarks" _ those hometown projects slipped into spending bills. The idea is that the sunshine of public scrutiny will mean fewer wasteful, silly sounding projects like $500,000 for a teapot museum in Sparta, N.C.
Lawmakers say voters are getting sick of all this pork; there's even a recent poll that says reforming earmarks is the most important issue facing Congress. Could it be that politicians are losing their appetite for the other white meat?
Definitely not, alas. And Trent Lott is dissing Bush and bragging about how "wily" he is:
Not only is Lott not worried that Bush might for the first time in his presidency veto a spending bill, Lott thinks quite highly of himself and Sen. Thad Cochran, Lott's colleague who happens to be Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
"Senator Cochran and I are wily guys," Lott boasted to the newspaper.
He was referring to the emergency spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Gulf Coast hurricane recovery that Lott and Cochran stuffed with a $700 million earmark to move the "Railroad to Nowhere" in order to clear the way for gambling interests and other developers to construct new facilities along the Mississippi coast.
Lott and other senators pumped the bill to more than $106 billion with earmarks added to the emergency bill that originally included $92 billion. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK, failed by one vote last week to secure passage of an amendment that would have stripped the $700 million out of the bill.
Who was the one vote? Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, who earlier in the day had told Bush he and others had rounded up enough senators to sustain a presidential veto.
Call me crazy, but it seems like these guys aren't just killing their party, but actually bragging about it. That doesn't seem very "wily" to me.
d.a.n said at :
4:50 PM, 05 02 2006 | Permalink
What's crazy is voters, for some reason, that keep returning to re-elect those very same incumbent politicians.
Voters whine and complain, but have only themselves to blame, since they have, right under their very own noses, the right to vote out irresponsible incumbent politicians (rather than continually re-electing them).
The corruption and pork-barrel is rampant.
Much of the pork-barrel is corporate welfare. Why voters allow this is crazy. But, it is only one of many pressing problems that continue to grow in number and severity, theatening the future and security of the nation.
d.a.n | May 2, 2006 4:50 PM
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Stephanie Crist said at :
9:21 PM, 05 02 2006 | Permalink
No, this doesn't seem "wily" at all. Have these guys really forgotten that they're supposed to be the party of fiscal responsibility and smaller government? Obviously so. Many conservatives feel absolutely betrayed by the GOP's irresponsible, illegal and neglectful behavior. Whatever happened to responsible spending? Whatever happened to enforcing the law and respecting the nation?
The answer is simple: voter apathy. We don't seem to care, so why should they? Well, people are starting to care now. And it's about time!!!
Stephanie Crist | May 2, 2006 9:21 PM
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d.a.n said at :
9:36 PM, 05 02 2006 | Permalink
That's part of the reason I'm now independent and no longer a Republican.
It's embarrassing that I ever fell for any of it.
It's not that parties are the problem, but they are not the solution either.
The real problem is in all parties and voters. It's all of us. The sooner we understand it, and adequately account for it with increased transparency, the sooner we'll get off this current path of fiscal and moral bankruptcy.
d.a.n | May 2, 2006 9:36 PM
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Ron Brown said at :
11:03 AM, 05 05 2006 | Permalink
The only question I have is will these same Senators and Representatives that are trying to kill pork now start to like pig again after November?
Ron Brown | May 5, 2006 11:03 AM
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Stephanie Crist said at :
2:29 AM, 05 08 2006 | Permalink
Probably, Ron. That's part of the problem.
Stephanie Crist | May 8, 2006 2:29 AM
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