Earmarks

  “Rather than fight the same tired battles that have dominated Washington for decades, it’s time to try something new. Let’s invest in our people without leaving them a mountain of debt.” These words, a quote from President Obama, were displayed prominently on the… Read more

With the collapse of the deficit reduction “super committee,” a year that began with promise is degenerating into another late-December budgetary scramble on Capitol Hill. Along with certain necessary decisions by Congress on tax policies, unemployment insurance, and the “doc fix,” nine of the 12 annual spending bills are still… Read more

Click here for a list of FY 2008 pork projects Despite pledges to rein in pork, the Democratic Congress has included a… Read more

In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama promised that he would veto any bill Congress sent him if it included earmarks, thereby endorsing the November commitment by House Republicans to impose a two-year moratorium on earmarks. Although members of the Senate refused to make a similar commitment—and… Read more

With the collapse of the deficit reduction “super committee,” a year that began with promise is degenerating into another late-December budgetary scramble on Capitol Hill. Along with certain necessary decisions by Congress on tax policies, unemployment insurance, and the “doc fix,” nine of the 12 annual spending bills are still… Read more

  “Rather than fight the same tired battles that have dominated Washington for decades, it’s time to try something new. Let’s invest in our people without leaving them a mountain of debt.” These words, a quote from President Obama, were displayed prominently on the… Read more

In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama promised that he would veto any bill Congress sent him if it included earmarks, thereby endorsing the November commitment by House Republicans to impose a two-year moratorium on earmarks. Although members of the Senate refused to make a similar commitment—and… Read more

"Next, there is the matter of earmarks. These special interest items are often slipped into bills at the last hour-when not even C-SPAN is watching. In 2005 alone, the number of earmarks grew to over 13,000 and totaled nearly $18 billion. Even worse, over… Read more

Now that it appears the 3,417-page omnibus appropriations bill (H.R. 2764) will be signed into law, the question remains whether the American people must endure the estimated 11,331 earmarks, worth approximately $20 billion, in this year's spending bills. Earlier this year, President Bush and Democratic congressional leaders pledged to cut… Read more

The 3,417-page (and counting) omnibus appropriations bill unveiled by Democratic appropriators provides further evidence that Congress has failed to curb its addiction to spending and pork. On the surface, the bill adheres to President Bush's $932 billion cap on discretionary spending. However, the bill employs enough gimmicks to push total… Read more

Nearly three months into the new fiscal year, only one of the 12 appropriations bills for fiscal year 2008 has been signed into law. As the holidays approach, the Democratic Congress has given up on the responsible approach of passing each spending bill individually; instead, it will cluster the 11 remaining bills into a single… Read more