Some deaf, blind, and thieving Republicans (STILL) don't get it!!

[PHILIP SCHNEIDER]

The house of representative's "conservative leaders" are already warning some Republican senators about their continued attempts to add EARMARKS to legislation. As of yet, the senators remain unnamed.

Some Senate Republicans Push for Earmarks and Budget Busting Spendi...

Posted by Brian Darling (Profile)

Saturday, November 6th at 9:00AM EDT

It didn’t take long for many in Congress to ignore the will of the
American people on earmarking special projects for states and
districts. The Tea Party movement has a long way to convince members
of both parties that the corrupting and wasteful practice of earmarking
has to end. Later this month, Senators Jim DeMint (R-SC), John McCain
(R-AZ) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) are expected to have to fight against an
Omnibus Appropriations bill on the Senate floor in the Lame Duck
session that is expected to be loaded up with earmarks.

According to National Journal (subscription required), some Senate Democrats and Republicans are teaming up with House Democrats to earmark.

Senate Democrats and Republicans don’t agree on much, but they appear to have found common ground in favor of the practice of
congressionally directed spending, also known as earmarking.

The Senate will come back into session the week of November 15th and
Congress is expected to complete the appropriations work for Fiscal
Year 2011. Rumors have been swirling on Capitol Hill that some Senate
Republicans have been teaming up with House Democrats to craft an
Omnibus Appropriations bill, one that would fund all discretionary
agencies for the year. That Omnibus spending bill may be loaded with
earmarks.

National Journal reports that House Republican Leaders are solidly against earmarking.
The House Republican conference has adopted a rule against earmarking
and they are expected to pass the same rule for the next Congress:

Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., who is seeking to become House majority leader in the Republican-run House next year,
this week called for an extension of the current House Republican
earmark moratorium. Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, next
year’s likely House speaker, is expected to heed Cantor’s call and seek
to extend the ban to the current fiscal year, which began October 1.

Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) is outraged that Republican Senators are secretly crafting an Omnibus budget busting spending bill, in order
to cut out House Republicans who would oppose the measure’s size and
inclusion of earmarks.

According to a story posted on Government Executive:

In what could be a preview of clashes between Republican purists and pragmatists, the top Republican on the House Appropriations
Committee on Thursday blasted plans by Senate Republicans to
collaborate with Democrats and push through a $1 trillion catch-all
spending bill. “Any effort by you or the present Democrat leadership
to move a budget-busting omnibus spending measure will be met with my
unequivocal opposition,” wrote Rep. Jerry Lewis of California, the
committee’s ranking Republican, in a letter to Appropriations Chairman
David Obey, D-Wis. “Further, I will strongly encourage every Republican
Member of the Committee, my leadership, and the entire Republican
Conference to oppose such legislation.”

National Journal is not the only outlet reporting this deal. The Hill reports that House Republicans are worried that lobbyists have teamed
up with pro-earmark forces in Congress to load the Omnibus with
earmarks.

The two biggest points of contention are likely to be the overall spending level and whether earmarks are included. The House
GOP leader, Rep. John Boehner (Ohio), joined more than four dozen
Republicans in signing a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
earlier this month calling for no earmarks to be included in the
omnibus legislation. “Taxpayers deserve to have appropriations
legislation considered in an open and transparent process,” the
lawmakers wrote in the letter, which was drafted by Rep. Jeff Flake
(R-Ariz.), a prominent earmark foe. “At a minimum, taxpayers should be
protected from thousands of unvetted earmarks, produced by a process
driven by a spoils system, being stuffed into any end-of-year
appropriations measure and shielded from review.” Democrats may balk
at that request, particularly if they lose control of the House. The
omnibus would be the last opportunity to fund pet projects while the
party has full control of the budget process. “Democrats are hell-bent
on getting their earmarks,” said one appropriations lobbyist.

The newly formed group Taxpayers Against Earmarks has an excellent explanation of the evils of the earmarking process.

What’s an earmark? In general, it is a provision inserted in the text of a Congressional bill or report that allocates
money or a tax benefit for a specific project, program, or
organization, circumventing a merit-based or competitive allocation
process. There are many reasons to be “against earmarks.” Earmarks
provide federal funding for projects benefiting only a state or local
interest, or a private company, university or non-profit. In other
words, most earmark-funded projects do not benefit the nation as a
whole — though the “giving” of an earmark by a Member of Congress certainly benefits that Member. While spending on earmarks may be a small percentage of the overall federal budget, the dollar amount and number of earmarks (over 9,000 earmarks totaling over $15 billion last year alone) is still quite large. And this is saying nothing of the fact that the 535 Members of the House and Senate last year requested over 40,000 earmarks!

If there's ONE straw that sticks in my craw it's that we can't get pristine legislation, a bill with nothing in it but ONE issue.

Hiding and/or attaching, during late night (2AM) sessions, extraordinary spending on extra-ridiculous projects within the legal language written for OTHER legislation is a historic part of our form of governing. I hope this congress is the beginning of change away from that form of legislation.This is a crisis we're facing, not business as usual!