Mitch McConnell Picks Pork in Budget Battle
GOP Leader Rejects Obey's Anti-Earmark Idea
By Bluey Posted in Congress — Comments (10) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Leave it to Republicans to waste a golden opportunity to champion fiscal restraint. A day after House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) scored points with conservatives for proposing to strip all earmarks from a mammoth omnibus spending bill, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell rejected the idea outright.
At at press conference today, McConnell outlined an alternative proposal that would combine $70 billion in troop funding with an omnibus bill, preserving an estimated 10,000 pork-barrel projects. In an attempt to mask his plan as fiscally responsible, McConnell said it would include an across-the-board cut to bring the omnibus in line with President Bush's top-line budget number. (Just one week ago Sen. Jim DeMint warned us that this would happen.)
Sen. Trent Lott made sure reporters knew that Republicans had no intention of cutting the fat: "Earmarks are justified and legitimate ... but they do need to pass the smell test. I wouldn't give up my earmarks."
Conservatives on Capitol Hill and throughout Washington view McConnell's proposal as yet another indication that Republican still don't get it when it comes to fiscal responsibility. "Senate GOPers will be the ones to bring back the earmarks that Obey is trying to eliminate," one staffer said. "Sickening."
The Club for Growth put it this way: "It is a shame to see the highest ranking Republicans in the Senate move to the left of the Democrats on earmarks. ... Senators McConnell and Lott’s support for pork projects in the Omnibus is a sad statement about the priorities of the Republican Leadership in the Senate."
Of course, it shouldn't be all that surprising. McConnell's campaign is running commercials back home touting his appetite for spending on things such as $200 million for medical research at Kentucky universities and a tobacco buyout program for Kentucky farmers.
Instead of spurning Obey today, McConnell should have followed Sen. Jim DeMint's lead and praised the liberal Wisconsin Democrat. Another day, another wasted opportunity.
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Mitch McConnell Picks Pork in Budget Battle 10 Comments (0 topical, 10 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
The troop funding is being used by both sides as a political football. Funding for our fighting men and women should never need to be attached to wasteful omnibus spending bills. That funding should be considered separately because on its own it deserves to be passed. Senate leaders, Republican leaders in this case, know that attaching troop funding to this wasteful monstrosity is the only way to silence fiscal conservative criticism of their big spending.
They should cut the crap and be brave enough to fight for the troop funding on its own. They can beat the Dems on that fight, but they are not doing that because they know they need it as collateral for pork. Lame and disappointing...
Obey was playing both sides of the argument. He can show the crazies that support him that he didn't fund the troops, and he can preach fiscal responsibility.
There is no way a clean troop funding bill will make it through the House. And the way Nancy and Harry have been picking conferees, Republicans wouldn't have much say. The Omnibus package was so liked because it gave everyone what they wanted: Cover.
Dems didn't want to see voting for troop funding without withdrawal language, but they didn't want to see a government shut down either. They saw how it worked for the Legislative Branch last time. Republicans liked it because they didn't have to fight a withdrawal language fight, and it preserved a line on the budget even with the pork.
There was no way Obey's idea would have made it to the Floor. Nancy would have substituted the whole bill for one of her liking as she has done on several occasions.
Plus look at it this way... if Democrats had just approved a budget without troop funding, they could have been seen as protecting the non-combat workers in the DoD, but all that the Dems would have had to do is never bring a troop funding bill up. And looking at the way that crazy nimrod from Nevada has been behaving, all evidence points to him becoming unhinged on the issue as Facts and Reality are cutting him off from all tactical options but retreat on retreat.
translates into: "I won't vote question yours if you don't question mine."
which translates into: "Unlimited pork for all!"
Pork! I'm shocked! From Congress? From a Republican? And I thought this was a party of fiscal conservatives. Oh, my bad...
MOlsen6
Proud supporter of McCain '00 and McCain '08
conservative and republicans who call themselves one.
should be considered separately, regardless of if u support it. Whats wrong w/ considering something on its own merits?
Tax and spend or borrow and spend, the choice is yours.
Rep. Obey's proposal, while stripping pork, would also have stripped troop funding (absent a withdrawal date) from the omnibus bill -- making it far less of a boon for conservatives than some have portrayed it. Do you think that McConnell's rejection of the Obey proposal is due more to the fact that the new bill would have neglected (again) to fund the military, or is it simply because McConnell wanted that pork to remain available in the bill?