Rep. John Campbell Intros Anti-Earmark Amendement
Posted by: Jubal | 07/31/2008 12:01 PM
I was away on vacation in Ensenada the past few days, meaning it's time to sort through what came over the transom in my absence. I'll start with this from the Club for Growth a couple of days ago:Flake & Campbell Introduce Anti-Earmark Amendment
First Vote of the 2009 RePORK Card
Washington - Today, perennial anti-porkers Reps. Jeff Flake (AZ-06) and John Campbell (CA-48) will be unveiling an amendment to strip all pork projects out of the FY 2009 Military Construction-VA Appropriations Bill (HR 6599). The Club for Growth urges all members of Congress to support the amendment. We will be key-voting this amendment to be included in our congressional scorecard.
The $72.7 billion MilCon bill contains 103 member-requested earmarks worth $622 million. While many of these earmarks may be worthwhile, they are not subject to competitive bidding and oversight. In addition, the bill's price tag is 14 percent larger than last year's appropriations bill and 5 percent larger than the President's request. "Supporting the Flake-Campbell amendment will constitute less than a 1 percent reduction in the bill's total price," said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. "Surely Congress can muster up the courage to cut spending by less than 1 percent."
The Flake-Campbell amendment marks the first anti-pork amendment of the FY 2009 appropriations season and will be included in the Club for Growth's 2009 RePORK Card. Last year, the Club for Growth issued a RePORK Card, grading each congressman on his commitment to eliminating pork. Last year, only sixteen members received a perfect score of one-hundred percent. Hopefully, that number will increase this year. At the very least, we expect the 41 House members who have sworn off earmarks to support the Flake-Campbell amendment.
"With federal spending ballooning by the minute, Congress should be cutting back not spending more," Mr. Toomey added. "If Democrats and Republicans want to live up to their promises of fiscal responsibility, they can start by voting for the Flake-Campbell amendment. We commend Reps. Flake and Campbell for introducing this important amendment, and urge all of congressional members to follow in the footsteps of these two taxpayer heroes."
Good for Flake and Campbell. Initiatives like this are part of the GOP's long crawl to reclaim credibility as the party of limited government.
This is great! We also have a chance in August to knock out one of our biggest porkers and to replace him with someone more like these reformers. Read about Don Young's primary challenger here:
http://www.greenfaucet.com/hanlons-pub/alaska-one-senator-down-one-congressman-to-go/53408
So the Congressman is good at saving pennies but he'll vote for a trillion dollar bailout. What am I missing here? Excuse me, but what's the point of this voting strategy? The message I get from him is that going after earmarks is a good "PR thing", but when the Fannie & Freddie lobbyists & Secretary Paulson come along and ask for a huge bailout, the Congressman will have their back and not the taxpayer.