United States Senator Tom Coburn
Home
|
Graphics Version
|
Site Map
Search:
About Senator Coburn
Biography
Welcome Message
Accomplishments
Coffee with Coburn
Constituent Services
Casework
Grants Research
Visiting Washington
Tour Requests
Academy Nominations
Internships
Passports
Flag Requests
Special Greetings
Financial Aid for Students
Government Publications
Federal Resources
Job Assistance
Pork Busters
Legislation & Issues
Sponsored Legislation
Issue Statements
Voting Record
Committee Assignments
Earmarks
Holding on Spending
Fighting Waste
Protecting Liberty
Watch Speeches
Coburn's YouTube channel
Coburn on C-Span
Press Room
Press Releases
Twitter
Watch Speeches
C-Span
Radio Clips
Floor Statements
News Stories
Editorials & Opinions
Newsletters
Press Kit
Podcast
Oklahoma Links
Youth & Student Corner
Internships and Job Opportunities
Academy Nominations
Contact Senator Coburn
Contact Form
Office Locations
Newsletter
Signup
Unsubscribe
Right Now
Visit Dr Coburn's Subcommittee on Federal Financial Government
Pork Busters
Submit a tip about government waste
Join Dr. Coburn for coffee
Earmark Toolkit
Editorials and Opinions
Print this page
January 3, 2007
An ethical way to reform
Our view: As Democrats take over Congress, they should keep promises of bipartisanship
North County (California) Times
Folks living in North County's 50th Congressional District should pay attention Thursday when Democrats take over the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. Leading their agenda for the "first 100 hours" is ethics reform, something of more than passing interest to a district whose former congressman is serving an eight-year prison sentence for taking bribes.
How the Democrats act in passing those reforms, though, should tell us how committed they are to the promises of an open, honest and bipartisan Congress under their rule.
First, the good news. On day one of their reign, Democrats plan to enact rules barring congressmen from accepting gifts and trips from lobbyists and forcing them to put their names on "earmarks" in spending bills.
"Earmarking" is the odious practice of inserting pet projects into spending bills anonymously and without much review. Though long accepted as political "pork" and a tradition for both parties, earmarking caught the public's eye following the Randy "Duke" Cunningham and Jack Abramoff scandals of the last two years. Transparency would give curious citizens the ability to find out what projects a congressman might be steering toward contributors, influential lobbyists or in Cunningham's case, the men behind the bribes.
The new chairmen of the respective Appropriations Committees in each house -- Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and Rep. David Obey, D-Wis. -- vow to issue a moratorium on all earmarks until next October. That would strip them from the nine overdue appropriations bills that outgoing Republicans left for the Democrats; the grandstanding 109th Congress got around to passing only two spending bills. Byrd and Obey also said they would continue to block earmarks if no reforms are passed.
So far, so good. If the Democrats can make the murky world of federal spending more transparent, they will have gone some way toward justifying their resurgence in Washington. Since Newt Gingrich's Republicans took the House in 1994, the number of earmarks increased from 4,146 in 1994 to 15,818 in 2005 -- jumping from an annual price tag of $20.4 billion to $40.8 billion. By any definition, this can't count as "conservative."
The bad news is that Democrats say they plan to force Republican members to watch from the sidelines during the first 100 hours so they can push through their agenda with little debate. Passing ethics reform in the first 100 hours is nice, but good is better than fast in this case.
Besides, with Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson's freezer full of cash as just the latest reminder, Democrats are no paragons of virtue. Sen. Byrd is known as the "king of pork" for his earmarking ability to deliver federal dollars to West Virginia.
Republican Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona and
Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma
have been strong champions of earmarking and ethics reforms. And our own Brian Bilbray introduced legislation this fall to make earmarks transparent.
These folks should be listened to, not shunned. Incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats promised to work openly and in a bipartisan manner with Republicans. Benching GOP members during the first 100 hours is a bad way to launch the 110th Congress.
It could lead to more partisan bickering, and many good ideas could get lost in the scrum -- such as Bilbray's proposal to put the federal government on a two-year budget cycle to separate the process from the avarice of election years.
And what does it say about the new majority if it passes important legislation without much debate -- similar to the way earmarks have been slipped onto spending bills?
Ethics and earmark reform in Congress belong at the top of the Democrats' agenda. But they undermine the rest of their mandate if they shut out responsible Republicans to score partisan points.
Permalink
View archive:
-- Month --
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
-- Year --
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
About RSS and Podcasting
|
Best Viewed
|
Plug-ins
|
Privacy Policy
|
Site Map
Home
|
Graphics Version
|
RSS Feed
|
Podcast