WASHINGTON – Bowing to tea party pressure, Senate Republicans adopted a two-year moratorium on earmarks Tuesday night after Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and other resisters jumped on the bandwagon.
ALEX BRANDON/The Associated Press
From left: Sens. Mitch McConnell , Lamar Alexander and John Cornyn talk about the earmark ban, which covers only Republicans in the Senate and is not enforceable.
The self-imposed ban mirrors an anti-earmark vow by the incoming House GOP majority. And it could have a significant effect on Texas, which has long relied on lawmakers in both parties to secure billions for hospitals, levees, bridges and military installations.
Hutchison has been an ardent purveyor of earmarks throughout her Senate career, directing at least $10 billion in federal spending in the last five years alone – mostly to Texas military bases, transit projects, universities and researchers. She said she decided to support the moratorium "as a way to the start the process of reform that is essential to address the crushing debt our country has accumulated."
But like other latecomers to the cause, she seemed less than enthusiastic about the move targeting earmarks, provisions tucked into legislation that specify funding for a particular project.
The article goes on to say how terrible ending earmarks will be for Texas but fails to mention that Texas gets back a small fraction of earmarks relative to its size and what we pay to the federal government... if projects are truly worthy they will go through the normal appropriations process and not be secretly added by individual members... people need to get off the addiction to earmarks because in the end Texas ends up being a subsidy state for other states even if Texas does receive earmarks... the other thing that Kay sometimes sez is that Texas earmarks are all legitimate projects which may be true... but in order to get those we are all sacrificing our dollars and our principles to pay for frivolous projects in other states... Rick's peeps pointed out things like butterfly museums and indoor rain forests in other states... and again if Kay's earmarks are so valid she will be able to fight for them in normal channels... out in the open...
What Kay relenting on an earmark ban means to me is that she is running again in 2012 and wants to take this issue off the table... is also seems like her best friend in Washington Mitch McConnell changing his mind almost immediately changed her mind...
Didn't the drubbing Kay got in the primaries teach her anything? She is beginning to look more like Lisa Merkowski than anyone else.
ReplyDeleteThere are a number of challangers to Kay. Roger Williams is hitting the campaign trail, hard and heavy, and has been for months. Michael Williams, to my knowledge, has not given up his goal of running.
It is time for Kay to come home, for good.
Retire05, KBH still has NOT learned her lesson what happened to her in March, hasn't she ?
ReplyDeleteDon't forget about Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst (R),who can self-fund his own campaign by raising lots of $$$$ in a Senate race, so you and I know he's all but certainly gunning for her Senate seat.
Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones (R) from what I hear, is still running for the Senate as well.
And what the hell is with John Cornyn? The Hill is reporting that Cornyn got his Hanes all in a wad in a meeting because some other senators (Jim DeMint) had not supported RINOs Crist and Castle. Screw what the people want, Cornyn has spoken. And we should just contribute to the Republicans so that Cornyn can give us more RINOs?
ReplyDeleteRemember, Cornyn voted FOR Timothy Geithner, a damn tax cheat. Does Cornyn think that in 2012 his good old boy image is going to convince TEA Partiers that they should pay no attention to his record of being the consumate D.C. insider?
Cornyn won't be up for reelection until 2014, but I do see the Senate going to the Republicans in 2012 and hopefully the White House.
ReplyDelete