PrairiePundit

  Just the News: Democrats lead $9 billion pork barrel spree through revived earmarking process   With 3,682 earmarks in $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill compared to 1,014 for Republicans, Democrats snag 50% more taxpayer dollars for home state projects. The best way to stop this is to vote against every Democrat on the ballot. 

  Washington Examiner: Earmarks are back, and they're as lousy as ever Democrats are desperate because their policies are so unpopular but Congressional members of both participating in spending taxpayer money to buy votes after the Democrats removed the ban imposed by Republicans when they were in power. 

Ace of Spades: "It's my nature," said the scorpion. Apparently the debt ceiling hike can have extraneous matters attached to it, so long as they involve spending, rather than cutting. The language was inserted by Senators Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.) and Dianne Fienstein (D., Calif.)... And requested by Barack Obama, Mr. Give Me a Clean CR. ... There appears to be a broad bipartisan cover up at play, but it stretches credulity to believe that the person most interested with the spending in Kentucky was not Sen. McConnell.  It also suggest that he was not focused on getting the best deal possible for Republicans.

Washington Post: Where public projects meet private interests Thirty-three members of Congress have steered more than $300M in earmarks and other provisions to dozens of public projects that are next to or near the lawmakers’ own property, according to a Washington Post investigation. Under ethics rules Congress has written for itself, this is both legal and undisclosed. It is another reason why earmarks should be banned.  It is probably also a reason why politicians c;ling to them.  They also want them because they are deemed politically valuable even if there is no private interest involved.

Image via Wikipedia NY Times: Gone for now are the likes of the taxpayer-financed teapot museum, or studies on the mating habits of crabs. But also shelved are a project to help consolidate information about arrests in Brazos County , Tex., and staffing for two new shelters for abused women and children in Salt Lake City . A rural county in Wisconsin will not be able to upgrade its communication system, and a road in Kentucky will not be widened next year. Across the country, local governments, nonprofit groups and scores of farmers, to name but a few, are waking up to the fact that when Congress stamped out earmarks last week, it was talking about their projects, too. Tensions are particularly acute in districts where new conservative lawmakers, many of whom criticized throughout their campaigns the practice of quietly inserting earmarks into spending bills, are coming face to face with local governments and interest groups who were counting on federal dollars to help shore...

Image via Wikipedia Washington Times: Signaling defeat, at least for the moment, Senate Democrats said Tuesday they won’t allow any earmarks in spending bills this year. “The handwriting is clearly on the wall,” said Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye , Hawaii Democrat, in announcing the move. While much of the rest of Washington was moving away from earmarks, Senate Democrats had resisted, with their leader, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, defending them even after President Obama said last week he’d veto any bills that included earmarks. But House Republicans had already said they wouldn’t allow any earmarks in bills, and since the GOP controls the lower chamber that meant senators would have had a tough time forcing them into legislation — and would have faced an Obama veto at the end anyway. “Given the reality before us, it makes no sense to accept earmark requests that have no chance of being enacted into law,” Mr. Inouye said. ... This looks like a win fo...

Image via Wikipedia Byron York: Press coverage of the budget frenzy on Capitol Hill has suggested that pork-barrel earmark spending is still a bipartisan problem, that after months of self-righteous rhetoric about fiscal discipline, Republicans and Democrats remain equal-opportunity earmarkers. It's not true. A new analysis by a group of federal-spending watchdogs shows a striking imbalance between the parties when it comes to earmark requests. Democrats remain raging spenders, while Republicans have made enormous strides in cleaning up their act. In the Senate , the GOP made only one-third as many earmark requests as Democrats for 2011, and in the House, Republicans have nearly given up earmarking altogether -- while Democrats roll on. ... In the 2011 House budget, the groups found that House Democrats requested 18,189 earmarks, which would cost the taxpayers a total of $51.7 billion, while House Republicans requested just 241 earmarks, for a total of $1 billion. ... ...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife Timothy Carney: Now that she has apparently won re-election without the backing of the Republican Party , Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is in debt to nobody -- besides the revolving-door K Street lobbyists and government contractors who financed her write-in campaign . As her write-in votes surpassed the votes for Republican nominee Joe Miller this week, Murkowski asserted her independence from the party. Murkowski told the press she feels liberated because she won "not because I came as my party's nominee but because a very, very wide range of Alaskans of all political stripes have stepped up and said 'you're the person we want to represent us in Washington.' " The Hill newspaper reported, "Murkowski said her 'backbone is stiffer, straighter' " from winning as a write-in. And how is Murkowski standing up to the GOP bosses? By rejecting the party's earmark ban and promising to pork up spending ...

Image via Wikipedia Daily Caller: Even as Senate Republicans approved a “moratorium” on congressional earmarks, a small but significant contingent of the caucus is openly vowing to flout the new rules. Led by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski , the contingent is “going rogue” against the party’s leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell , who Monday made a high-profile switch to back the earmark ban . Even with McConnell’s support, proponents of the earmark ban appear to be at a loss as to how it will be enforced against their colleagues who are determined to seek pork-barrel projects. “I know that it is non-binding and individual senators are going to come to their own conclusions about that,” said Sen. John Thune from North Dakota , a potential presidential candidate in 2012 who promised to abide by the ban himself. “Ultimately, the ban will be enforced by the voters. If GOP senators want to violate the ban they do so at their own peril,” said John Hart, a spokesman for Sen. Tom ...

Image via Wikipedia Washington Times: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday he will support an earmark ban in the Senate Republican conference, a move that appears to leave House Democrats as the sole supporters of pork-barrel spending . "I will join the Republican leadership in the House in support of a moratorium on earmarks in the 112th Congress ," Mr. McConnell said. Speaking from the Senate floor, the Kentucky Republican said the recent election showed us that "Americans know the difference between talking about change and actually delivering on it." "On the issue of Congressional earmarks as the leader of my party in the Senate, I have to lead first by example," Mr. McConnell said, adding that he does not apologize for requesting earmarks in the past. "There is simply no doubt that the abuse of this practice has caused Americans to view it as a symbol of the waste and out-of-control spending that every Republican in Wa...

Image via Wikipedia Opinion Journal: ... Now the GOP is returning to power in the House after Democrats have taken deficits to new heights and Republicans campaigned on spending restraint. It's true that earmarks make up only 2% to 3% of all federal spending, but that spending is what greases the political skids for passing trillion-dollar-plus budget bills. Members get what they want in return for voting "aye" on what the Administration and Congressional leaders want. That 2% or so is far more than the Members spend on spending oversight, which ought to be a major undertaking by the Republican House. Voters should be told when their money is misspent. The political symbolism is also crucial to GOP credibility as it seeks to cut spending elsewhere. Republicans can't possibly succeed in freezing pay for government workers or cutting programs, if at the same time the media are exposing new Bridges to Nowhere. After tolerating Democratic earmarks for two year...

Image via Wikipedia The Hill: Lobbyists who have built their careers around securing congressional money for clients are facing the biggest squeeze yet on their business as earmarks begin to disappear from Washington. Since capturing the House in the midterm elections last week, Republican leaders have affirmed their support for a plan that would outlaw earmarks in the lower chamber during the next Congress. Lobbyists on K Street contacted by The Hill expect the ban will apply to Democrats in the minority as well, essentially taking billions of dollars out of the hands of House lawmakers. The earmark ban “is going to lead to long-term change on K Street,” said Michael Herson, the president of American Defense International, one of the largest defense consulting and lobbying firms in Washington. “You will have to be able to perform a broader service rather than just get earmarks. The focus would shift to the policy and the bigger picture.” Lobbyists had expected the Democr...

Image via Wikipedia The Hill: Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D- Texas ) has requested millions of dollars in earmarks that may have benefited a security firm he founded. Ortiz, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee , helped direct earmarks and federal grants worth tens of millions of dollars to the Port of Corpus Christi , the nation’s fifth largest port. Since 1997, the port – which is in Ortiz’s district -- has hired Amtex Global Services, Ortiz’s former firm, on contracts that have ranged from $900,0000 to more than $1 million annually. The company continues to pay Ortiz for the sale of his stake in it. Ortiz sold his 55 percent ownership in the firm in late 2003 after media reports raised conflict-of-interest concerns and accusations of political retaliation against critics of Amtex Security. He noted the sale on his congressional financial disclosure forms for that year. Yet financial disclosure reports filed by Ortiz between 2005 and 2010 show a $250,00...

Washington Times: Is America losing its taste for bacon? When it comes to the congressional variety, members of the powerful appropriations committees are finding that holding the nation's purse strings — and the power the positions afford in doling out pork-barrel projects back home — are no guarantee these days for re-election. Six of the 13 members of the Senate Appropriations Committee up for re-election this year have announced they'll retire or have lost a primary challenge. A seventh, Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Democrat, is trailing challenger Rep. Joe Sestak in the polls heading to Tuesday's primary. The committee has 30 total members. In the House, powerful Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey, Wisconsin Democrat, announced this month that he won't seek a 22nd term in office. Even Rep. Alan B. Mollohan, an appropriations committee veteran who hails from one of the most pork-barrel-friendly states — West Virginia — couldn't k...

LA Times: For years, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) has proudly delivered a cornucopia of federal dollars to the folks back home -- more than $82 million this year alone, including money for road improvements and medical research. But he and nearly all of his House Republican colleagues say they are swearing off such "earmarks" this year to demonstrate fiscal responsibility. The change of heart has set up an election-year argument over who is best serving their constituents -- Republicans who say lean times demand belt-tightening, or Democrats who continue to seek special funding for local projects such as buying parkland in the Santa Monica Mountains or offering healthier food in Chicago schools. "This is an important step for reining in out-of-control government spending and changing the culture of Washington," said Republican Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon of Santa Clarita. Democrats dispute that characterization and say earmarks serve a valuab...

NY Times: Jolted by a sudden tightening of the rules, lobbyists and military contractors who have long relied on lucrative earmarks from Congress were scrambling Thursday to find new ways to keep the federal money flowing. “The playing field has changed dramatically,” said Michael H. Herson, a lobbyist in Washington whose firm, American Defense International, represents numerous defense industry contractors who have already put in their requests this year for earmark money. Those clients, who along with hundreds of other businesses got $1.7 billion last year through the controversial practice of awarding earmarks, will now be barred from receiving money under a new policy adopted Wednesday by Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee. House Republicans, seeking to outdo the Democrats in ethics reform, went even further Thursday by agreeing to swear off all earmarks, for both nonprofit and commercial organizations, for the next year. “This is the best day we’ve...

Fred Barnes: Scott Brown’s victory spoils a popular myth. I’m not referring to the one about Teddy Kennedy as an indomitable force in Massachusetts, even from the grave. Yes, the Kennedy myth was rendered inoperative. But so was the fable about a death struggle pitting tea party populists and angry conservatives against moderates and the Republican hierarchy. That myth foresaw conservatives refusing to support candidates with even the slightest of moderate tendencies, dividing the party, and ruining its chances in the 2010 elections. In Massachusetts, conservatives preferred victory to purity. Brown is not a social conservative. He’s pro-choice and, while supporting traditional marriage, believes “states should be free to make their own laws in this area.” Yet conservatives and tea partiers joined moderates and independents in the Brown coalition. They struggled, but it was against Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley and President Obama, not against each other. This was actual...

The Hill: Two Democrats got into a verbal altercation — and according to one a physical one — on the floor of the House on Thursday night over an appropriations earmark one was seeking. After the House floor had largely cleared following a series of votes, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) split apart from a heated conversation and began yelling at one another. “You’re out of line,” Waters shot while walking down toward the well. “You’re out of line,” Obey shot back before turning and walking away. But then Obey stopped, turned back toward Waters, and shouted: “I’m not going to approve that earmark!” Obey turned away, but Waters went to go huddle with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. She could be over heard telling them: “He touched me first.” ... It appears they both lost their composure. For old people they can act pretty childish.

The CEI compiled the video, but the words are all Obama's.

Michael Ramirez looks at the Obama double speak. Click on the image for a larger view.