THE G.O.P. WINDBAG - ARE THEY EVEN A POLITICAL PARTY, OR JUST A SLOGAN AND A RADIO SHOW?
Via Oberman, powerful stuff:
IS GOP GRANDSTANDING 'LOYAL OPPOSITION'?
DEMS RESTORED PAY-GO, INCLUDED IRAQ/AFGHANISTAN ON-BUDGET, AND DID ZERO "HIDDEN" EARMARKS ON $800B STIMULUS BILL
Now, of course, we know how seriously the GOP grandstanded - yes, grandstanded - on the balanced budget amendment during Clinton years, soaking up valuable time, lots of valuable time, from the business of government. Clinton, of course, on the advice of Rubin, raised taxes, as had Ronald Reagan early in his term, and went for "pay-go".
Naturally, once the GOP was given responsibility - yes, responsibility, they went right ahead and ditched pay-go in Bush's first year and ran up yet another of the largest cumulative deficits in the history of the Republic, offering off-budget "supplementals" that got littered with all things nice for the GOP Senators and Congressman (and that's before the Abramoff wing of the party is considered).
Today, this week, right now, the GOP are grandstanding - yes, grandstanding - on "earmarks" and "pork" and "spending right". Just listen to Lindsey Graham, if you don't believe me, who appears to have a short-short memory. It was the Democratic Congress that restored pay-go, not after Obama, but after taking back the House in 2006. If I'm not mistaken, we wouldn't even have the lists of earmarks that we have now, if the Democratic Congress hadn't pushed through more daylight (not enough, but still).
Even the margin of defeat for proposals dealing with removing earmarks is getting narrower under the Democrats. Here's the last time, that I can recall, at least, that the Senate voted on ...well, all the Republicans could propose was to cap earmarks, not remove them:
Club for Growth Knocks McConnell for Earmark Vote
by Walter Alarkon, April, 2008
The earmark-loathing Club for Growth has chastised Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday for opposing an amendment seeking to strike new earmarks from the 2005 highway bill. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) had offered the which also called for cap on earmarks already in the bill.
...
The Wednesday vote on the DeMint's amendment failed 78-18, with bipartisan support.
by Walter Alarkon, April, 2008
The earmark-loathing Club for Growth has chastised Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday for opposing an amendment seeking to strike new earmarks from the 2005 highway bill. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) had offered the which also called for cap on earmarks already in the bill.
...
The Wednesday vote on the DeMint's amendment failed 78-18, with bipartisan support.
A NEW ERA OF RESPONSIBILITY - IS THE CONGRESS DOING ITS PART?
Apparently, outgoing and indicted Republicans can get their earmarking done! You can't make this stuff up, no matter how 'worthy' these projects (USA Today):
The short-term budget, which Congress failed to complete last year and is now headed to a Senate vote this week, includes seven projects worth $1.2 million for Rick Renzi, a former Republican congressman indicted in 2008 on charges stemming from a land deal in Arizona. It also includes $1 million in projects requested by former senator Larry Craig, R-Idaho, arrested in 2007 as part of a sex sting.
Apparently, the abuses of the past are not burned into the collective conscience, yet (Johnathan Turley writes):
As the former Republican chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Young was the guy to see, a Member who had long filled his campaign coffers with money from business interests seeking earmarks. With his equally controversial colleague, Sen. Ted Stevens, he pushed an appropriation for $223 million to build the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” in Alaska.
At least in the short-term, a key concern is how does one make 'local appropriation' accountable and transparent and ... formulaic.
