For restless taxpayers and Americans fed up with a broken Washington, there was a genuine gleam of hope in January of this year when House Republicans called for an immediate earmark moratorium.
And despite much inaction by House Democrats, Speaker Pelosi recently told The Washington Post that “I’m not sure that I see a scenario in which there would be earmarks this year.”

However, not long after making that statement, Speaker Pelosi had an apparent change of heart about working with Republicans to get Washington’s fiscal house in order. The Associated Press reported just last week that “[Speaker] Pelosi has quietly shelved the idea of a [Republican-led] one-year moratorium on so-called earmarks….” Quite a change of heart, leading some to believe that the Speaker caved to pressure from the ‘Pork King’ and her bacon-hungry freshman Democrats.

But, the Speaker’s earmark doublespeak – which is not new to the American people [insert energy, taxes] – did not go unnoticed. In fact, editorial boards from across the country had some very colorful thoughts about Speaker Pelosi’s lack of leadership on this issue.

The Nashua (NH) Telegraph said “Democrats fall short on earmark reform. In 2007, when the Democrats were swept into majority positions in both houses of Congress, party leaders pledged to cut the number and cost of congressional earmarks in half. They failed. Instead, these costly pet projects are being tacked onto appropriation bills at a record rate, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Monday officially backed away from efforts to impose a one-year moratorium.”

A ‘Failing Grade’ is what the Beaver County (PA) Times gave House Democrats, adding: “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced last week that a proposal for a one-year moratorium on so-called earmarks has been dropped.”

The Ventura County (CA) Star told readers “Pork stays on menu. Last fall, the newly ascendant congressional Democrats promised a thorough reform of earmarks or, failing that, a one-year moratorium on them. That was then and this is now…

Meanwhile, the Speaker’s hometown paper, the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote: “[Speaker] Pelosi recently dropped the idea of a moratorium on earmarks, although she told reporters, ‘It’s always an option. It can always be put back on the table.’ It belongs back on the table. Congress should be doing what it can to assert fiscal responsibility and address public cynicism about the way power is wielded in Washington.”

And to underscore the fact that House Democrats are part of the problem, not the solution, in fixing a broken Washington, CBS Evening News profiled Rep. Jack Murtha’s (D-PA) muddied earmark trail. CBS reports that Mr. Murtha has earmarked $2 billion of America’s hard-earned taxpayer dollars since 1992 to fund wasteful Washington spending all while receiving generous campaign contributions from his earmark recipients. “What’s good for Murtha and his home district isn’t necessarily good for America’s taxpayers.… His most notorious project is the government agency that the government doesn’t want: The National Drug Intelligence Center, also in Murtha’s hometown. Every year the White House tries to close it because they already have a Drug Intelligence Center. But Murtha keeps the duplicate open using half-a-billion dollars in earmarks,” the report adds.

Tagged as: Democrats Abuse of Power, Earmarks
Posted 07 Apr 2008

USA Today reports that House Democrats will unveil their fiscal 2009 budget on Wednesday. If budgets are about priorities, then Democrat proposal speaks clearly about how little they value fiscal responsibility. As USA Today says succinctly:

Democrats “want more domestic spending. They want fewer tax cuts. And they reject savings in Medicare.”

Remember when Democrats claimed to be the party of fiscal responsibility? It wasn’t that long ago when Speaker Nancy Pelosi “promise[d] fiscal restraint,” professed that Democrats “love tax cuts” and are “committed to addressing the long-term challenge faced by Social Security and Medicare.”

Tagged as: Democrats Abuse of Power, Tax Relief
Posted 04 Mar 2008

House Republican Conference just published a new Web video entitled “Spotlight on Abuse.” Watch it below or here.

House Republicans are still seeking signatures to our petition to make all earmarks subject to a debate and vote in the House. Democrats prefer to keep earmarks veiled in secrecy. To date, zero Democrats have signed the petition, and to force a vote we need 218. We need fiscally responsible Democrats to join us in this effort. So far, none have.

Pull back the blinds. Let the sunshine in. Support Republican earmark reform petition by sending this video everywhere.

While you’re at it, read more on Democrat earmark abuses.

Tagged as: Democrats Abuse of Power, Earmarks
Posted 02 Oct 2007

The Post-Office Congress scrambled last week to complete action on bills that belied their titles (we’re thinking of the Democrats’ no-energy energy legislation and a lobbying bill so watered down that it dropped a prohibition against trading votes for earmarks), but Democrats’ most noteworthy accomplishment was to turn the House into their own little fiefdom. The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund sums up the Democrats’ egregious stolen vote:

Democrats ruled that a GOP motion had failed even though, when the gavel fell, the electronic score board showed it winning 215-213 along with the word FINAL.

The Washington Post editorial board gets it:

On the House side, a major disappointment was the failure of Democrats to live up to their pledge to treat the new Republican minority better than Democrats were treated when Republicans held power. Democrats promised a new, more open House, with adequate time for members to digest complex legislation and ample opportunity for the minority to offer amendments on the floor; instead, they, too, often used the same hardball tactics to muscle through legislation that Republicans had employed. That might have been understandable in the Democrats’ “first 100 hours” that the new Congress was in session, but it is unfortunate that it persisted until the recess. That’s no way to do business, and Democrats know it.

Back to the Journal’s John Fund:

Despite Ms. Pelosi’s pledge that “we would have the most honest and open government,” the new majority quickly adopted a whatever-it-takes approach to passing legislation. Last week alone, a dubious ethics bill was passed less than 24 hours after being introduced. The bill expanding health-care coverage to children was rewritten at 1 a.m., a rule harshly limiting debate was passed at 3 a.m., and the bill was sent to the floor for a final vote the same day…

Tagged as: Democrats Abuse of Power, Earmarks
Posted 06 Aug 2007