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U.S. Senator Jim DeMint
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Government spending has ballooned out of control. Every year since 1999 federal discretionary spending -- the part of the budget that Congress votes on each year -- has increased in real terms by 5 percent. That means in addition to keeping up with inflation the government has been getting 5 percent larger every year for the last decade. At the same time the number of earmarks grew from 1,439 in 1995 to 13,997 in 2006. The growth in earmarks and the growth in overall federal spending is not coincidental. Earmarks grease the skids for the passage of bloated spending bills. Members of Congress are loath to vote against bill containing pet projects for their district or state. What results is bloated spending bills that contain just enough pork to ensure that everyone will hold their nose and swallow.

This has created a situation where we've mortgaged our children's future. The United States government is in debt to the tune of $30,000 for every man, woman and child alive today. Not only have we mortgaged your future, we've lost our focus. Instead of focusing on real national priorities like health care modernization, social security reform, tax simplification and making America more competitive, Congress spends its time churning out 14,000 pet projects to get itself re-elected. Until this wasteful spending is put to an end the American people will not get the government they deserve.

Sen. Jim DeMint has been one of the Senate's leading opponents of wasteful government spending. As the chairman of the Club for Growth recently commented in the Wall Street Journal, "When it comes to fighting government spending in Washington, Mr. DeMint can be found on the frontlines." The National Taxpayers Union recently named Sen. DeMint the "Taxpayer's Best Friend," giving him the highest pro-taxpayer rating of any U. S. senator on issues affecting "tax, spending, regulation, trade, and debt burdens."

DeMint has a history of accomplishments when it comes to fighting wasteful spending. In December 2006, with the help of a few of his colleagues, he stripped the 2006 spending bill of over 11,000 wasteful pork barrel earmarks. As the Weekly Standard pointed out DeMint "managed to block passage of an 'omnibus' bill, forcing Congress to pass a continuing resolution, which maintains spending at the level of the previous year. The CR expired on February 15 and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid agreed to pass a CR for the next fiscal year. DeMint views this as a 'pretty stunning development.'"

DeMint was also responsible for sponsoring broad new rules that increase the transparency of the earmarking process. The "lobbying reform legislation" that Democrats brought to the floor when they took control only would have required senators to disclose 5 percent of the earmarks they included in spending bills. DeMint went to the floor and forced the Senate to adopt language that required that Senate to disclose all earmarks. Despite opposition from Senate Democratic Leadership, the DeMint amendment prevailed 51- 46.

DeMint also lead the effort to keep federal agencies from awarding funds without competition. As early as 2006 the senator was urging the Bush Administration to order its agencies to award projects solely on merit and not award them according to the whims of congressmen and senators. DeMint's insistence on this issue payed off and in his 2008 State of the Union speech President Bush announced that he was issuing just such an executive order. The order that DeMint worked on with the White House will ensure that this administration and future administrations make funding decisions based on what's best for the nation and not what's best for a local politician.

DeMint also led the effort in the Senate to impose a one-year moratorium on pork-barrel projects. The DeMint amendment garnered the support of all three presidential candidates -- an unprecedented development in the Senate. In an article in Politico DeMint's colleagues highlighted his work on this initiative stating, "[c]olleagues credit DeMint for pressing the issue in the face of opposition. 'He is nothing but tenacious,' said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) praised DeMint for being 'willing to rock the boat' by 'speaking out for a significant number of us on this issue who do not like this system on earmarks.'" Even the liberal San Francisco Chronicle backed DeMint’s earmark moratorium saying: “Congress should be doing what it can to asset fiscal responsibility and address public cynicism about the way power is wielded in Washington.”

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