32,000 freaking earmarks ! That is just in the upcoming Appropriations Bill. I have no way of knowing how many are from Republicans or Democrats but Chairman Obey does and he's mad. What he is mad about is the Right practicing their old wornout tactics of demagoguing a issue to death. What that means is if the Right thinks they can cast insults about democratic earmarks for the next couple months they had better think again. Why some will ask ? Because, wait for it, Obey has said he will cut all the Republican earmarks out of the bill.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Partisan sniping over Congress' targeted spending escalated Monday as a House committee chairman threatened to kill all pet projects if Republican leaders "demagogue" the issue.
The chairman, Wisconsin Democrat David Obey, also said that his House Appropriations Committee will publicize proposed "earmarks" before House-Senate conferees resolve differences in the government's annual spending bills this fall. But Republicans said the offer falls far short of Democrats' January promise to disclose lawmakers' earmark requests before the bills reach the House floor, a process that begins this week.
Rep. Obey has been around the House a long time and in known for not taking any crap from anybody. Now that the Dems are back in power and Obey is back in his old chairmanship we can sit back and enjoy some of the fireworks. Fireworks like this may even require popcorn.
Referring to Boehner and Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., the Appropriations Committee's top Republican, Obey told reporters: "If they think they can demagogue the earmarks process all the year long and expect Democrats to carry the burden of passing earmarks, they're wrong.... There will be no earmarks for anybody."
What is that the Sopranos say ? Oh yeah that crybaby Boehner and Lewis, who should of been indicted by now, can Faggitaboutit.
What exactly is it the Republicans are whining about ? You won't believe why, well on second thought you might. The Republicans want more daylight on the earmarks. This from the Do Nothing But Build Bridges To No Where Party. Quite the joke ain't it? If you want all the details, go read the article, it's a short one page and is pretty easy to understand. I just had to share the irony of all this and I wanted to give Rep./Chairman Obey a pat on the back. I know we have been hard on him in the past , but this time he deserves the kudos for this, so fair is fair. Bada Bing.
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Only because the Dems are
being challenged by the Republicans for putting 32,000 benchmarks in AND not keeping their word on bringing them to light before voting. This needs to stop. No more "secret" benchmarks. If cows poop on some farmers spinach, why should tax payers bail them out. I hope the republicans keep the Dems toes to the fire on this one.
I am assuming
you meant "no more secret earmarks" rather than "benchmarks". I think the whole "light of day" argument is just another political football for both parties to kick around. They need to put an end to earmarks period. The reason our national infrastructure (parks, highways, bridges,etc) is in such disrepair is because of the amount of money wasted on "pork" projects to help re-elect incumbents, democrats and republicans alike, although I think it is pretty well accepted that during the republican reign they took spending on "pork" to a whole new level. What a corrupt group of politicians they were and are!!
__________________________Work and struggle and never accept an evil that you can change -- Andre Gide