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Friday, January 25, 2008
GOP Earmarks Pledge: On Examination, Nothing There
Tastes Great, Less Filling
House and Senate GOP members are still on retreat in West Virginia today, with young turks battling old bulls over party policy on those nefarious earmarks.
Informed sources and Porkbusters say that the earmarks donnybrook lies ahead on the agenda, when Rep. Jack Kingston's (GA) H. Con. Res. 263, a propoposal introduced last November to impose a six-month moratorium on all earmarks, will be taken up by the party in retreat.
Six months? As a budget policy, that's stillborn. What a difference a year would make. Other equally inane non-starter proposals will be under discussion, including a hilarious ban on earmarks for projects named after themselves.
This is much ado about nothing, and in private, no less. In case anyone has forgotten, never has an earmark meant one additional penny in spending; reducing earmarks has no impact whatsoever on spending levels. Nor do earmarks mean pork, which is subjectively defined and eagerly consumed in districts everywhere.
In short, tastes great, less filling. Let disclosure be a porkbusting disinfectant.
Posted by Dana Chasin
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