Today in USA Today, the newspaper has a pretty hard-hitting and right-on column blistering Congress for their serious earmarking/pork addiction. Newly re-minted United States Congressman Brian Bilbray has a short column (reprinted below by Duane Dichiara as well) in which he praises the action taken late last week by the House of Representitives to start shining light on the ‘earmarking’ process:
Last week, the House of Representatives took the first step in changing the culture that has left so many Americans disillusioned with their government. With the public demanding reform, the House adopted rule changes to the practice of earmarking that will bring more transparency to the legislative and appropriations process. For the first time, earmarks will be put in the public light where everybody will be able to see how their tax dollars are being spent.
This is the first step of many in what must be an ongoing commitment from this Congress to blow away the fog of anonymity that surrounds our governing process. If we are to make a profound and lasting change in how this institution handles the taxpayers’ dollars, then we must be willing to adopt changes that will enable us to be better stewards and more responsible to the taxpayers.
Bilbray goes on his piece to call for a two-year budget process.
Bilbray doesn’t really take on the substance of USA Today editorial to which he is ‘technically’ rebutting, other than to make the case that the rule passed last week was an important first step.
I found it interesting that USA Today has a pub-note after Bilbray’s piece saying that they asked Congressman Jerry Lewis (the Californian Republican who is Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and managed to vote AGAINST the earmark sunshine bill – Lewis is pictured below to the right) for a responding piece and he declined.
With the lights on, we can see what a mess there is in this House. The next step is to start putting the brakes on Republican earmarks that go beyond the limited role that the Party of Lincoln has for the federal government. So whether it is a swimming pool for Representative Lewis’ constituents, or refabbing an old movie theatre for Representative Doolittle’s constituents, we need to put on the brakes.
As long as Members of Congress look to ‘bring home the pork’ instead of STOPPING the pork and reducing the tax burdon, Republicans in Congress will only grow in disfavor with grassroots activists. If the constituents of Congress want to build a pool, or refurbish an aging theater, let them do it with their own money.