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Democrats Dump Pork On Taxpayers
Opinion Editorial in The Tennessean 1/3/08
by Congressman Marsha Blackburn
Before the holidays, in a rush to get home, Democratic leadership presented a massive overdue spending bill to fund the government for another year.
Work that should have been completed months earlier landed in the middle of the night, presenting members with only one choice: Vote yes or no.
Within this half-trillion-dollar-plus behemoth were more than 9,000 "earmarks" — special projects inserted by individual members of Congress to benefit their constituents. I was joined by many of my Republican colleagues in objecting loudly that we were asked to approve these projects in the blind, without benefit of the oversight owed to taxpayers.
Every member of Congress has a responsibility to advocate for the valid needs of their constituents. Tennessee requirements are proliferating, forcing the state to look to Washington more and more each year. Federal money funds road and bridge maintenance, research at public universities and equipment for the National Guard, to name but a few examples.
No time allowed for oversight
Ideally, these earmarks run through a transparent, regular order process, are fairly weighed against other priorities, and are voted on by subcommittees, committees and the House and Senate as a whole.
The process goes off the rails when some are frustrated by the pace of the deliberative process, or because their projects cannot endure the light of day. Then politicians try to load their funding on the next train out of town. Spending can be attached in conference committee, when only a select few members are able to amend a bill. Funding can also be "air-dropped" — attached on the House floor without benefit of reasonable deliberation.
It is through this "pork" that the federal government builds bridges to nowhere and funds fruit-fly research in France. These are the back-room deals that come due every April, raise the ire of every taxpayer, and drain accounts of the one thing Congress can't write a check for: public trust.
A year after we were promised the most ethical Congress in history, 9,000 earmarks were passed in the middle of the night, many of them the consummation of deals made in the back rooms of Washington, hidden from those who ultimately have to pay the bill.
This has been a year of broken promises, mismanagement and misplaced priorities. The American taxpayer is literally the poorer for it.
Next year, the whole process will begin again. It is up to the Democratic leadership to choose to embrace fiscal responsibility and lock the back-room doors. Democratic leaders must stop holding the appropriations bills hostage to a frivolous legislative agenda that they know will not become law. If they do not, come November, they may find themselves in the smokehouse with the rest of the bacon.
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