 |
 |
|
|
| |
|
Pork-Laden Plans Must Come to End
|
| |
December 9, 2007 - As Congress approaches the end of the year, tens of billions of hard-earned American taxpayer dollars are at stake. After spending the better part of the past year scheduling countless political votes on the floors of the House and Senate, congressional Democrats have run out of time to responsibly pass 11 of the 12 annual spending bills that fund the basic functions of the federal government.
With only days remaining in the congressional session, Democrats now plan to roll all 11 remaining appropriations bills into one giant omnibus spending bill that is chock full of earmarks and wasteful spending. The package proposed by congressional leadership is more than $20 billion over President Bush's budget request. This number eclipses $200 billion as you look at the budget over the next 10 years.
As if that were not bad enough, the omnibus spending bill being promoted right now would quadruple the number of congressional earmarks in all of last year's appropriations bills. Indeed, there are nearly 12,000 earmarks in this package totaling more than $20 billion. It is important to remember that all the money for these pet projects is being borrowed from our children and grandchildren. Our national debt is growing at $1 million a minute.
For a Congress that vowed to cut the number of earmarks in half this year, this is a sad step in the wrong direction and yet another broken promise.
As collateral to get their pork-laden spending bill, Democrats are holding hostage funding the president has requested for our troops who are serving overseas. Democrats will insist on getting their inflated spending bills or else they will halt the much-needed troop funding legislation.
It's no wonder the approval ratings for Congress are at an all-time low. We are proving over and over again that we care more about our own re-elections, our own pork projects and our own political interests than we do about governing responsibly. If we want the American people to know that we are serious about reform, we need to once and for all close the favor factory.
As the final days of Congress unfold, I will work with my colleagues to ensure that Republicans are not complicit in the Democrats' failure to lead responsibly. For our part, I believe this is a defining moment.
After losing the 2006 elections, many of us in the Republican Party learned a valuable lesson courtesy of the American voter: wasteful Washington spending must come to an end. Furthermore, the Republican Party, which has traditionally been the party of fiscal restraint and limited government, must lead in this area. I have been very critical of Republican over-spending, but unfortunately, the Democrats are making the Republicans look like tightwads.
House and Senate Republicans must oppose the irresponsible Democratic spending bill that is being rammed through Congress at this late hour. It was wrong for Democrats to wait this long and combine all of their bills into one pork-laden omnibus, and it would be wrong for Republicans to sanction this irresponsible behavior by voting for the Democrats' bill.
This is an opportunity for Republicans to show the American people we have heard the message and that we are getting serious about fiscal responsibility. The responsible solution is to pass a resolution that funds government operations for next year at current spending levels and to insist that Democrats stop holding troop funding hostage.
Not only would this approach greatly reduce the number of pork projects being proposed, but it would save the American taxpayer $31 billion this Christmas season.
###
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
| 9th - |
current Press Release |
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
