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Editorial - Underground Earmarks: Hide the Pork
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
April 11, 2007
The hypocrisy is stunning, even for Democrats.
Democrats promised reform and even "a moratorium" on pork spending. But appropriation committees very quietly are accepting earmarks. Evidently the party in power assumes that what Americans can't see can't hurt Democrats.
You see, the publically funded federal agency that traditionally keeps tabs on earmarks, the Library of Congress Congressional Research Service (CRS), has announced it no longer will respond to requests from congressional members on the number or scale of earmarks. This, because of political pressure, some say.
It's a game called "Hide the Pork." And the sum is enormous. Last year earmarks added up to $64 billion, according to CRS.
"There is real anxiety members will complain if CRS says something is an earmark when the new appropriations committees say it isn't," a research service staffer tells The Wall Street Journal.
So, Democrats can thump their chests and proclaim that they killed the spending beast when the party continues the very same practices that sent spend-happy Republicans packing.
The cover on earmarks is only good for a year. Under the Transparency and Accountability Act, which bows in September 2008, there will be a published record of spending. It just won't be very timely, says Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
Regrettably old habits -- and hypocrisy -- die hard on Capitol Hill.
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