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Earmark dispute splits GOP senators

November 11th, 2010 . by TexasFred

Earmark dispute splits GOP senators

WASHINGTON — Even as they prepare to welcome 13 newly elected Republicans into their ranks, GOP senators have already fired the opening salvos in an intraparty ideological battle over federal spending — one that threatens to divide the upper chamber’s Old Bulls and newer Tea Party-aligned members.

South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, a champion of conservative candidates like Florida’s Marco Rubio and Utah’s Mike Lee, announced Tuesday that he will push Senate Republicans to vote to make “earmarking” — the process by which lawmakers can set aside federal funds for pet projects in their home states — expressly against internal GOP rules.

Six of the new GOP freshmen, including five who received backing from DeMint during their campaigns, have signed on to his proposal.

But, while DeMint and other Senate fiscal conservatives argue that so-dubbed “pork barrel spending” wastes taxpayer dollars and facilitates fishy political back-scratching, other Republicans say that a ban would do little to curb government spending and would put more control into the hands of government agencies rather than lawmakers who best understand their constituents.

Full Story Here:
Earmark dispute splits GOP senators

And so it begins…

The RINOs love pork just as much as the Dems. I told my readers before the election, ‘as soon as the elections are over, we’ll see a resurgence in the RINO herd’, and we are. NOW is the time to put a lid on it too. STOP these out of control RINOs from spending money this nation doesn’t have. NOW is the time for the entire GOP and ALL Conservatives to stand and tell a few Senators NO! A word that HATE to hear.

“This debate doesn’t save any money, which is why it’s kind of exasperating to some of us who really want to cut spending and get the federal government’s discretionary accounts under control,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma was even more blunt. “The ban doesn’t accomplish anything,” he told POLITICO.

Several of the GOP candidates who won Senate seats on Nov. 2 made earmark reform a central plank of their campaign pitches. Former presidential nominee Sen. John McCain was a high-profile champion of the idea during the 2008 presidential race, commonly accusing Congress of wasting money with the gusto of “a drunken sailor.”

Look at the names and watch the *money trail*, it’s that simple.

I know our states need money to operate, Texas alone is facing a HUGE deficit over the year 2011, but that doesn’t mean that other parts of the nation should bail us out, and to my way of thinking, earmarks are nothing more than *mini bailout programs*, and in some cases, they’re not all that *mini*.

McConnell and others who are wary of DeMint’s proposal say that eliminating congressional earmarks would simply shift the responsibility for doling out federal funds to executive branch agencies — essentially giving the White House greater power over government cash.

“Every president, Republican or Democrat, would like to have a blank check from Congress to do whatever he chooses to do,” McConnell said in a speech to the Heritage Foundation last week. “You could eliminate every congressional earmark and you would save no money. It’s really an argument about discretion.”

Maybe we need to give McConnell a new nickname, how about *Porky*? It sure does seem like the good Senator loves him some pork…

Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for the anti-spending group Citizens Against Government Waste (publishers of the the annual “Pig Book,” which details pork barrel spending) calls that argument “a crock.” She argues that money for earmarks is often set aside in Congress’s budgeting process — funds that could easily be reduced if they were not available for non-competitive projects targeted by individual lawmakers.

Paige is very correct. Please, continue reading the full article, it goes on to tell you what banning earmarks would save us and it also references the March vote and just who the Republican Senators were that stood with the Dems in an effort to keep this blank check available.

Most of us have made a commitment to fight out of control spending and the RINOs that are doing it. We have vowed to replace the RINOs with true fiscal Conservatives and to go after ALL Dems that aren’t fiscal conservatives, uh, that would be ALL Dems I am sure.

So, do we just talk about it or are we going to get involved and write letters, make phone calls, send emails and faxes and literally inundate the RINOs letting them know that We, The People are watching, and we’re NOT happy with what we’re seeing?

Or do we sit around and gripe, make comments on blogs and ultimately, do nothing?

I don’t know what my readers will do, all I can tell you is what I do, and if you’ll look in the sidebar of this blog you’ll see a *slug* titled *We, The People*. It’s been made available to my readers in an effort to make it that much easier for them to contact ALL of their law makers, state and federal.

I talk regularly with my state Senator, Bob Deuell and state Representative, Joe Driver. I regularly contact my U.S. Representative, Sam Johnson and U.S. Senators, John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison.

I have to tell you, talking to my U.S. Senators, even though BOTH are affiliated with the GOP, is a waste of time, Cornyn and Hutchison can’t spell the word conservative with a dictionary and spell check! But BOTH are the darlings of the Texas GOP, that’s why BOTH are still seated.

The TEA Party and Texas Conservatives will be working hard to remove Hutchison in 2012 and Cornyn in 2014 when he comes up for re-election. I hope all of my readers will do their part to remove ALL RINOs from the U.S. Senate and House, and work even harder to remove the Dems that are just as bad for this nation as are the RINOs.

Get your friends and family involved, have them get their friends and family involved, that’s how it starts! Wake this nation up! The recent gains made in this last election will all be for naught if we don’t keep the ball rolling and get the job done, and done RIGHT.

DO IT THE RIGHT WAY!

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8 Responses to “Earmark dispute splits GOP senators”

  1. comment number 1 by: Bob Hall

    RINOs and any elected servant who embraces earmarks and does not activly fight for their total eleimination from the legislative process should be voted out of office. The evil of earmarks does not lie in the amount of the funds; rather it is the purpose they serve. Earmarks are like Marijuana. They are the gateway to to the selling of ones soul to vote for the big dollar items and programs that are destroying our nation.

    Stopping earmarks will go a long way in reducing corruption and bad votes in Congress.

  2. comment number 2 by: Patrick Sperry

    One can only hope that they do the right thing. We, as Fred noted, need to stay on top of them, and hold their feet to the fire.

  3. comment number 3 by: Dick Robie

    They dont get it, do they? Well, next election is in ’12. Probably a good idea to let them know

  4. comment number 4 by: Vigilante

    Not only do we need to stop the RINO’S in congress, with their earmarks that usually guarantees them a cushy seat on some companys board of directors after getting tossed, but SOMEBODY needs to start putting the skids on hitlery. Just about everytime I read the news she’s giving a pile of OUR money to some shithole country trying to BUY an “attaboy” and their friendship, and all they really want is to shoot her right in the ass of those 3xxl pants suit she wears. I wonder, does she ever spend anytime in her office in DC??? Why does SHE always have to go to other countries?? Why in the hell can’t they come here?? I can’t remember the last time someone came here that wasn’t a gdmmd
    muzzie except the Israeli prime minister, ….and he was insulted by shit for brains.

  5. comment number 5 by: Katie

    As each election passes we should be getting more and more of the RINOs out to the point where we really will have a totally different Congress.

    It will take 4 more years, but we can do it!

  6. comment number 6 by: Bob Mack

    Happy Veterans Day to you and your readers, and a salute to all those in and out of uniform who work to restore our Republic.

  7. comment number 7 by: mrchuck

    I have enjoyed my Veterans Day. I reflect back to my days in VietNam, 1961 thru !965, MACV-SOG, Captain.
    Cowboy days. We won our part of the war.
    Your post is about politicians, who won’t “toe the line” for the Conservative leadership.
    So, it is time to take names and kick ass.
    Any politician who is not following our Constitution, will be earmarked for extinction politically, PERIOD.
    So watch, listen, and inquire if needed.
    Pass this around.

  8. comment number 8 by: Steve Dennis

    If these politicians think that just because the election is over they can forget about their cmapaign promises they are sadly mistaken. We will hold them accountable for their actions. We will rid Washington of all the RINOs eventually, but until we do we can expect nothing much to change on earmark reform.