GOP senators vote against their own earmarks

GOP senators will vote against spending bill over earmarks -- theirs and others' - CNN.com

This is something out of Alice in Wonderland.

"Two prominent Republicans vowed Wednesday to vote against the $1.1 trillion spending bill, citing concerns over pork-laden pet projects, although millions of dollars of earmarks in the bill were requested by the two senators.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas has requested 54 earmarks worth more than $170 million and Sen. John Thune of South Dakota has made 43 requests totaling more than $165 million, according to an analysis by Taxpayers Against Earmarks, Taxpayers for Common Sense and WashingtonWatch.com"

I was for the bill before I was against it...gotcha.:idontno:

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Wonder why they didn't remove their earmarks from the bill? ..;-)


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Sounds like someone is crawling up on the cross knowing they aren't getting nailed to it.

The bill will likely pass, but they'll use it as an "I was against earmarks" campaigning point.

Guess you're ok with the $48 Billion earmark by a single Democrat. You're focused on the pennies again.

Based on the following comments that Obama made after the last omnibus bill was passed I would hope that he would pull out his veto pen for this one - the buck stops with him.


http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2009/03/obama_to_unveil.html

Going forward, starting with next year's budget, Obama said, any earmarks should be required to meet strict standards. They should be aired at hearings and posted on lawmakers' websites in advance for public scrutiny. Any earmark for a for-profit private company should be subject to competitive bidding because they are most corrupting kind. "Furthermore, it should go without saying that an earmark must never be traded for political favors," he said.

"And finally, if my administration evaluates an earmark and determines that it has no legitimate public purpose, then we will seek to eliminate it, and we will work with Congress to do so," Obama vowed.

Besides limiting earmarks, the president called on Congress to pass appropriations bills separately and in an "orderly way" so that "massive, last-minute" omnibus bills such as this one aren't necessary.

Rita, that is a very good question and exactly what Orrin Hatch did.

Sen. Orrin Hatch has pulled the plug on scores of earmarks he championed earlier this year as part of the Republicans? new campaign against pet projects.

His decision, announced Monday, may only be symbolic if Congress just extends the current budget ? a move that would not fund any earmarks. But if Congress decides to pass a major budget bill before the end of the year, it may include thousands of earmarks, including dozens of the 256 requested by Hatch that add up to $1.2 billion.

Didn't the Republicans fill it with earmarks to try and keep the Dems from voting for it? It's just a game played on the Hill.

Didn't the Republicans fill it with earmarks to try and keep the Dems from voting for it? It's just a game played on the Hill.

No, these are requests that were made much earlier in the year when the House GOP had voted to not sponsor any earmarks. The Senate GOP voted to only sponsor earmarks that were going to public entities (governments, non-profits, etc.). Here is a link to the website that has all the information if anyone cares. There is one in the Energy and Water Development Section for Walton County but it was sponsored by Boyd and Nelson. ;-)

News

Saw this tidbit today that I thought was interesting...

The Senate?s omnibus spending bill includes $1.1 billion in earmarks requested by six GOP senators seen as swing votes on the 1,924-page bill, according to an analysis by The Hill.



Sens. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), George Voinovich (R-Ohio), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Kit Bond (R-Mo.) all have earmark requests included in the legislation, which is opposed by Republican leaders.


A sixth Republican, Sen Robert Bennett (R-Utah), who was defeated at his state?s GOP convention and will not be in the next Senate, has already said he will vote for the bill.

It will need at least three GOP votes to move it to a full vote as McCaskill (D-MO) will be voting against it as she is an earmark opponent.

Based on the following comments that Obama made after the last omnibus bill was passed I would hope that he would pull out his veto pen for this one - the buck stops with him.

In a new report...

Right Turn - Obama is fine with 6,000 earmarks

In a new report...

Right Turn - Obama is fine with 6,000 earmarks

"Not only does this suggest that his promises of reform at his "shellacking" press conference was less than sincere, but it also indicates that Obama is unwilling to cross his Democratic allies, even as many of them go out the door. "

I am shocked :sarc:

It isn't that he's "fine with it" it's that the alternative is worse.

From your article:

"We wish there were no earmarks and are troubled with their presence" in the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill, an administration source told ABC News. "But Secretary Gates has told the President that the alternative bill" - a continuing resolution that for one year funds the government, which is due to run out of cash at the end of the week - "doesn't have the funding critical for several national security priorities."

It isn't that he's "fine with it" it's that the alternative is worse.

I'm not against it, I have an ornament on that tree that has been vetted through years of analysis and study that is working itself through the Corps process. 😀

Guess you're ok with the $48 Billion earmark by a single Democrat. You're focused on the pennies again.

And which one is that?

Here is a report from Fox News that confirms it's the grand total for all earmarks is $8B.

Taxpayer Calculator: $8Billion in Earmarks - FoxNews.com

Sounds like someone is crawling up on the cross knowing they aren't getting nailed to it.

The bill will likely pass, but they'll use it as an "I was against earmarks" campaigning point.

Exactly. Now they get to play it both ways depending on who they are campaigning and neither would be a lie.

Exactly. Now they get to play it both ways depending on who they are campaigning and neither would be a lie.

Only in politician land.

In Scooterbugland both the letter, spirit, and cumulative effect are considered and if you aren't telling the WHOLE truth, you are telling a lie.

And which one is that?

Here is a report from Fox News that confirms it's the grand total for all earmarks is $8B.

Taxpayer Calculator: $8Billion in Earmarks - FoxNews.com

Sounds outrageous but unfortunately it's true. Here's the link.

? earmark - Big Government

Just heard on CNN, Senate republicans killed the bill!

Just heard on CNN, Senate republicans killed the bill!

Woo hoo!!!!!! I hadn't heard that.

The $1.1 trillion Senate omnibus bill contains 6,714 earmarks worth $8.3 billion.​

The $48 Billion earmark story is completely false.​

TO BE CRYSTAL CLEAR: They did not propose it, they did not promote it, they certainly did not submit it to the House Appropriations Committee, and it is NOT part of the bill.​

Rep. Cleaver’s $48 Billion Earmark: Fact or Fiction? | The Blaze​

I'm shocked....:idontno:

Let the "phone marking" begin. A CR will now likely be passed until February. A CR allows individual agencies to decide how to spend the money with NO transparency so what will happen is that Congress will pick up their phones and start dialing for dollars. What would be interesting is to see which of the 6000+ earmarks get funded and who were their sponsors. If a CR is passed for the whole year there will be even more phone marking with no transparency. Ain't politics great?

A new analysis by a group of federal-spending watchdogs shows a striking imbalance between the parties when it comes to earmark requests. Democrats remain raging spenders, while Republicans have made enormous strides in cleaning up their act. In the Senate, the GOP made only one-third as many earmark requests as Democrats for 2011, and in the House, Republicans have nearly given up earmarking altogether -- while Democrats roll on.​

The watchdog groups -- Taxpayers for Common Sense, WashingtonWatch.com, and Taxpayers Against Earmarks -- counted total earmark requests in the 2011 budget. Those requests were made by lawmakers earlier this year, but Democratic leaders, afraid that their party's spending priorities might cost them at the polls, decided not to pass a budget before the Nov. 2 elections. This week, they distilled those earmark requests -- threw some out, combined others -- into the omnibus bill that was under consideration in the Senate until Majority Leader Harry Reid pulled it Thursday night. While that bill was loaded with spending, looking back at the original earmark requests tells us a lot about the spending inclinations of both parties.​

In the 2011 House budget, the groups found that House Democrats requested 18,189 earmarks, which would cost the taxpayers a total of $51.7 billion, while House Republicans requested just 241 earmarks, for a total of $1 billion.

If we could keep earmarks down to the level Republicans in the House have proposed, we'd save 510 billion over ten years.

If we could keep earmarks down to the level Republicans in the House have proposed, we'd save 510 billion over ten years.

And if you believe that money still wouldn't be spent, I have a Bridge to Nowhere to sell you. Here's a phrase to look for in the coming weeks, months, years, etc.- Phone Marking. I mentioned it in an earlier phrase but there has yet to be an earmark moratorium on the President and Administration and those won't go away.

Below are some examples of Presidential Earmarks that were included in the 2010 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill, General Investigations Account with no Congressional Sponsor (as reported by the Taxpayers for Common Sense). Keep in mind these are fairly small amounts as they are only study dollars and not construction or operations and maintenance. These are only a few of them too and he also didn't get everything he wanted nor at the amounts he wanted.

Augusta GA- $157,000
Bayou Sorrel Lock, LA- 986,000
Boston Harbor- $426,000
Currituck Sound, NC- $126,000
Des Plaines River, IL- $421,000
Edisto Island, SC- $67,000
Indian River Lagoon North, FL- $126,000
Lower Columbia River River Ecosystem Restoration in OR and WA- $251,000

There are plenty more...