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Liberalism: Why think when you can “feel”?

Dems’ idea of “fiscal responsibility”

When Democrats won control of Congress last year, one of their promises was to restore some semblance of fiscal responsibility.  Those of us with brains knew they meant “raise taxes to pay for bloated big-government spending”, but others actually believed they would stop wasteful spending.

Instead, we’ve seen the Democrats thwart efforts at curbing earmarks (pork) and publicizing pork votes.  It seems that regardless of who is in power, the thirst for taxpayer dollars for vote-buying pet projects is one that cannot be quenched.  NRO has further evidence (as if you really need any):

Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R., S.C.) office is the first with a press release in my inbox:

  • Earmarks: Instead of reducing the number of pork projects in the federal budget, the bill drives the number of earmarks up from last year. The bill contains over 8,000 earmarks, bringing the total for 2008 up to over 10,000 earmarks compared to just 2,658 in 2007.
  • Spending Gimmicks: Instead of cutting wasteful spending out of the bill to bring its cost down to the President’s level, the bill uses budget tricks and gimmicks to hide at least $14 billion in extra domestic spending.
  • Policy Riders: Instead of limiting the package to spending needed to fund government operations, the bill includes unrelated policy items. Many of these riders are backed by special interests, such as organized labor, and could not win passage on their own. 

Cut spending?  That’s just crazy talk!

December 18, 2007 - Posted by | big government, hypocrisy, pork

1 Comment »

  1. Here is an interesting analysis of pork funding courtesy of The Club For Growth. Essentially, at the time this analysis was written, there were 50 anti-pork amendments put forth in Congress. The voting lowlights:

    “Sixteen congressmen scored a perfect 100%, voting for all 50 anti-pork amendments. They are all Republicans.

    The average Republican score was 43%. The average democratic score was 2%.

    The average score for appropriators was 4%. The average score for non-appropriators was 25%.

    Kudos to Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) who scored an admirable 98%-the only democrat to score above 20%.

    Rep. David Obey (D-WI) did not vote for his own amendment to strike all earmarks in the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. Rep. Obey scored an embarrassing 0% overall.

    105 congressmen scored an embarrassing 0%, voting against every single amendment. The Pork Hall of Shame includes 81 democrats and 24 Republicans.

    The democratic Freshmen scored an abysmal average score of 2%. Their Republican counterparts scored an average score of 78%.”

    So, there’s your pork spending. Then there are taxes:

    “(t)he last time democrats held a majority in Congress – 1993-94 – they passed what was then the largest tax increase in history, about $240 billion over 5 years. Now, in only the third month of their new majority, they have already passed an even larger tax increase.”

    $392.5 billion over 5 years. Then, of course, we have Steny Hoyer’s promise of a 5-day Congressional work week. That promise didn’t even make it past the first week in session. Gee whiz – I wonder why this Congress has such a low approval rating. It must be those damn Republicans still in office. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

    Comment by TheBad | December 18, 2007


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