Senate Rejects Earmark Reform

J.J. Jackson* | March 17, 2008

Filed Under John McCain, Unconstitutional Spending

Don’t ever try and take a Senator’s hand out of the cookie jar. If you try, they will bite you while continuing to rummage around and looking for tax dollars to spend on pet projects:

March 14 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Senate rejected a proposal by Republican presidential candidate John McCain to place new restrictions on the congressional pet projects known as earmarks.

The vote came as the House and Senate passed separate $3 trillion budget blueprints for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 that clash on whether to raise taxes to pay for giving millions of families a one-year reprieve from the alternative minimum tax. The Senate version, approved 51 to 44 early today, includes a non-binding amendment calling for the extension of some of President George W. Bush’s tax cuts that are slated to expire in coming years. The House plan doesn’t.

The Senate’s 71 to 29 vote to reject the earmark proposal was a setback for Arizona Senator McCain, who has made the fight against such spending an issue in his presidential campaign. McCain, who took a break from the campaign trail to cast votes yesterday on the budget, said his plan would have pared wasteful spending.

“This may be the last bastion in America where they don’t get it, that Americans are sick and tired of the way we do business here in Washington,” McCain said. “We will continue to take our fight to the American people. I will have every town hall across this country talk about earmark and pork-barrel spending.”

He had sought to change Senate rules to require two-thirds votes on legislation including the projects.

What, you didn’t actually think that these high and mighty, we know better than you what’s good for you, Senators would actually agree to make it harder for them to spend tax dollars on building research centers with their names on them did you?

Contributor's website: http://www.libertyreborn.com

Similar posts:

None Found

*Content posted by a user may not be completely written by that user. Content from another source is cited in either block quotes, with quotes or with a link to the original material. Content from other sites is posted for commentary and news purposes under fair use. Each user is responsible for their own postings and a particular posting should not be construed as being endorsed by this site or it's owner.