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Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Taking the budget bull by the ear mark horns
Congressional Dems look to show some backbone in their first crack at a budget:
Democrats tidying up a cluster of unfinished spending bills dumped on them by departing Republican leaders in Congress will start by removing billions of dollars in lawmakers' pet projects next month.
The move, orchestrated by the incoming chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations committees, could prove politically savvy even as it proves unpopular with other members of Congress, who as a group will lose thousands of so-called earmarks.
Now is the perfect time to reduce pork. The temptation to plump up next year's budget in advance of elections will likely prove too great.
2 Comments:
No, I don't want to make that bet. I suspect that Dems will rescind many earmarks for the current budget, but that a lot of projects will be brought back for the next budget.
I do think there will a difference in degree -- we will always have earmarks, but if we have more transparency in the process, we can limit them.
That said, earmarks are not inherently bad. The process has gotten out of control.
The smaller purse was tried (I think the phrase was "starving the beast") and Congress (run by those fiscally responcible Republicans I might add) spent the money anyway. And pork may be a pain in the ass but as a percentage of the budget it is almost insignificant.
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