The Democrats Will Cut Pork?
Written by Sam on December 12th, 2006Democrats tidying up a cluster of unfinished spending bills dumped on them by departing Republican leaders in Congress will start by removing billions of dollars in lawmakers’ pet projects next month.
The move, orchestrated by the incoming chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations committees, could prove politically savvy even as it proves unpopular with other members of Congress, who as a group will lose thousands of so-called earmarks.
“There will be no congressional earmarks,” Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said Monday in a statement announcing their plans, which were quickly endorsed by incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D- Nev.
Wow. I never thought I would live to see the day that the Republicans run up record deficits while the Democrats cut out the pork. Let’s see if they live up to their word and that this is not just a mere political ploy. Of course, trimming pork this one time won’t cut it, no pun intended. They need to continue to do it year after year and increasing the amount of fat that they trim.
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I am highly doubtful that they are going to mean what they say and say what they mean. My prediction: Republican pork is stripped out, the media praises the move, then quietly Democrats slip in their pork projects. It’s going to be essentially a zero-sum reduction.
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That is my speculation as well.
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Exactly
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As long as we’re in agreement that when the Republicans had congress, they also had ridiculous amounts of pork, then I agree with the rest of your analysis. This is not a Democrat problem, this is a professional politician problem.
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We are all in agreement here David.
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Agree with Langley (wow), I also laugh at Byrd saying he’s going to avoid pork.
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Yeah Joseph, I think Hell just froze over…. there’s no other explanation for you and I agreeing on something.
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Well according to the Libertarian group (’CAGW.org’ aka Citizens Against Goverment Waste) Byrd and Reid are among the top10 Pork Spenders. There is a better chance that Stevens(R) and (Snowe) would cut Pork than Byrd and Reid but those chances are sooooo slim its not funny.
PORK is gonna increase quite a bit. I expect Bob Casey(although Pro-Life) is gonna be strongly Pro-Pork. Jim Webb smells like another PORKster. Clasgill and that Fingerless guy in montana are all gonna push PORK bills in the senate.
In Rhode Island nothing will change since the democrat will introduce as much PORK as Chafee did. The only bright side to 06 besides Corker is that Chafee is finally gone.