Still Time for Earmark Reform.
January 3rd, 2008 by Peter SudermanOf course, with all the ruckus in Iowa, it would be easy to forget about a current, pressing policy issue in Washington: Earmarks! Ed Morrissey at Captain’s Quarters lets us know how critical the clock is on the issue:
Sources on the Hill tell some of us that a critical point has been reached at the White House on whether to issue an Executive Order that would prevent federal agencies from spending funds on 90% of the earmarks in the Omnibus Spending Bill. According to the whispers, the earmarkers on Capitol Hill have begun to lean heavily on the White House to let the matter drop and to keep the earmark funding in place.
The appropriators were, in some ways, rather crafty in letting the budget battle play out as long as it did. By letting it go past the September 30th deadline all the way until Christmas, they assured that the fight over the omnibus would be cut short by the Christmas vacation. And now, the continuing debate over earmarks is being drowned out in large part by the primaries.
But make no mistake. This would be a huge event, and a massive blow against pork and political favor-trading. FreedomWorks issued a call to action yesterday urging its members to let the administration know that there’s plenty of support for turning off the earmark faucet. Click here to let the White House know that you’re tired of waste.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:57 am
Earmarks are usually bad when it comes to how federal agencies spend the money that they are given yearly. This is because earmarks usually involve a pot of money in the agency’s budget that is set aside and can only be spent on a specific issue and not on the general administration of the agency. If we are to keep earmarks, this issue needs to be addressed or agencies will continually be being asked to do “more with less”, which is unsustainable. I wouldn’t be surprised if GWB did what you said he’s thinking about doing, but it would be unconstitutional…just like the line item veto.