Text 261, 114 rader
Skriven 2006-05-02 19:49:00 av ROSS SAUER (1:123/140)
Ärende: Today's GOP-party of corr
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Corruption and benefits to big contributors, the most corrupt House and 
Senate, backed by the worst president ever.

Bold Bid To Cut 'Pork' In Congress

WASHINGTON, May 2, 2006

This article was written by Gail Russell Chaddock. 

If Congress gets into funding local projects, there will be no end to 
it, and it might be "productive of evil." 

So warned President James Monroe in 1822. Since then, members of 
Congress have siphoned off billions in federal tax dollars for their own 
projects, or, some say, "pork." Previous bids to limit or end this 
practice of earmarks have proven as doable as nudging a spring chick 
back into its egg. 

But this week, Congress is on track for its boldest step yet. The 
reason? Republicans are increasingly anxious about this fall's 
elections, and, with gas prices soaring, the public is paying attention 
to waste and corruption in Washington. 

Higher gas prices are "making the public more conscious of waste and 
corruption," says Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers 
University in New Brunswick, N.J. 

Americans in a recent poll said that ending earmarks should be the No. 1 
priority for Congress this session, according to an NBC News/Wall Street 
Journal poll released last week. Thirty-nine percent said that members 
should be prohibited from "directing federal funds to specific projects 
benefiting only certain constituents." 

In the House, still reeling from the scandals involving former lobbyist 
Jack Abramoff and ex-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Republican leaders 
are pushing for the disclosure of the names of members who propose 
earmarks and are seeking a process to remove them. 

Standoff Over Spending 

It's an issue that roils those on spending committees, who nearly 
derailed the GOP lobby reform bill over the issue of earmark reform. 
Under pressure from House leaders, the appropriators caved, on condition 
that earmark reform be extended to tax-writing committees as well. 

"It's our only chance to maintain the majority. It really is," said Rep. 
Jeff Flake (R) of Arizona, a lead sponsor of earmark reform, after the 
vote. 

In the Senate, the fight is over reining in spending. In a political 
move only used once before in the U.S. Senate, freshman Sen. Tom Coburn 
(R) of Oklahoma is forcing his colleagues this week to vote on 
individual pork projects attached to a $106.5 billion emergency defense 
bill. 

He lost the first round, barely. His effort to drop the so-called 
railroad to nowhere, a $700 million project to relocate a recently 
repaired railway line away from the Gulf Coast, was heading toward 
success. But Sen. Trent Lott (R) of Mississippi, one of the project's 
chief promoters, armed himself with charts and photos of the Gulf Coast 
and made a last-minute, personal appeal to GOP moderates and saved the 
railroad funding, 49-48. 

(Not only that, Trent Loot [yes, Loot,] got $500 million dollars for a 
shipyard that is ALREADY insured, that was damaged by hurricane Katrina 
but the shipyard is a HUGE contibutor to Loot's campaigns. Gee, yo don't 
suppose...)

But, in a move that stunned the chamber, Coburn won his next bid to 
remove a $15 million earmark for a Gulf seafood ad campaign. "I guess 
Senator Coburn is the new Miss Congeniality," said Sen. John McCain (R) 
of Arizona, a reference to the heat one takes from peers for opposing 
pork projects. "I hope we can pry some more pork out of it," he added. 

Every Zero Counts 

This week, the Oklahoma freshman is going after 17 other earmarks, 
amounting to $2,680,145,000. (Unlike most other senators, Coburn doesn't 
round big numbers: Every zero counts.) These include $100,000 for a 
drivers' license facility in Georgia, $500 million to cover business 
disruption expenses for Northrop Grumman, and $20 million for a study of 
shrimp and reef fishery profitability. 

"Hurricane Katrina should not be an excuse for corporate welfare," 
Coburn wrote to his colleagues last week. 

Until the 1900s, earmarks were rarely used on Capitol Hill. In 1987, 
President Reagan vetoed a highway bill because it had targeted funds for 
member demonstration projects. In 1988, the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) issued a report showing all unauthorized projects, or 
member earmarks, in that year's appropriations bills. 

"Lawmakers told OMB that if they ever did it again, they would cut their 
budget," says Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government 
Waste, which has published a list of earmarks since 1991. 

Other budget-cutting groups hail a new mood on Capitol Hill. "Pigs are 
going to start flying," says Ed Frank, a spokesman for the Ending 
Earmarks Express, a project of the conservative Americans for Prosperity 
Foundation. "The voice of the taxpayers is finally being heard in 
Congress." 

Still, the Senate version of lobby reform falls short of the House 
proposal. It provides a process to eliminate earmarks that were added 
late in the legislative process, but does not require lawmakers to 
disclose their sponsorship of earmarks. 

© 2006 The Christian Science Monitor.

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