Back in 2006 when House Republicans were ushered into the minority, there was no serious analysis of why that happened that did not include as a significant factor that while the GOP continued to rhetorically talk about smaller government, their actions did not match their words.  One needed to look no further than the group of lard-loving Republicans that had, over time, been stacked onto the House Appropriations Committee, to see the center point of the GOP’s problem.  This group of big-spenders clearly enjoyed running the favor-factory, bolstering their campaign kitty’s with money from the lobbyists on K Street, and lording over non-Appropriators with a holier than thou attitude.  One of the big questions, and challenges facing incoming House Speaker John Boehner and the new House Leadership is what to do about this committee.  Absent a demonstration of clear leadership, the natural course of a “seniority driven” institution – in the new Congress, the lineup of GOP members on the House’s “spending” panel will be all of the same porkers that were there before, which is totally unacceptable.

There are a lot of reasons why the Appropriations Committee is filled with those Republicans who like to spend.  The first of which is that a newly elected conservatives generally don’t want to be on the “spending” committee.  They didn’t come to Washington to spend, and so that is not an area of passion.  Service there, instead of fun, would be a chore!  But that works out just fine for the Appropriator “Cardinals” actually plot and scheme to bring onto the committee only those members of Congress who, to use a Star Wars metaphor, are willing to embrace the dark side.  New Appropriators have to pass a number of litmus test qualifications:  they must believe in the supremacy of Appropriators to others, they must believe in earmarking (note that there is not one champion of ending earmarks on the Appropriations Committee, just grumbling concessions from porkers that know they have lost on this key issue), they must be willing to schmooze K street lobbyists, and they must be willing to play the big game – getting members to grovel for approval of local spending projects and then sticking them into larger spending bills, helping to grease the way for bigger spending by Congress.

Guess what the past practice was if you wanted to get onto the Appropriations Committee as a critic.  If you want “on” to this spending committee specifically to try to stop their egregious ways?  Ask Congressman Jeff Flake of Arizona, one of the most vocal critics in the House of the current Appropriations process.  Flake’s bid to become a junior Appropriator was targeted for destruction by none other than U.S. Rep. Jerry Lewis himself.  Dubbed the “King of Pork” and the “Minority Maker” by the Wall Street Journal, Lewis was Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee going into 2006, and has continued to serve as Ranking Member of that Committee for Republicans.  Lewis ran an extensive drill that was successful, and Flake was unable to secure the support to fill just one seat on this large committee.

This story highlights the challenge that is ahead for House Republicans as they take the majority back, but have to demonstrate that things will be different with this new Congress.  There are a lot of factors that will go into assessing the job that Boehner and his team do – but for conservative and tea party leaders across the country – all eyes will be on how they handle this significant issue with the Appropriations Committee.

What is needed is a complete overhaul, with a whole new group of conservatives being placed on this committee.  Frankly, the whole group of current GOP Appropriators should be ushered off of the committee, and replaced with new people – folks that will change the culture of spending that has become a permanent fixture over there.  While it is a no-brainer that the efforts of Jerry Lewis to waive the rules on term-limits for Committee leaders so that he can once-again Lord over spending should be rejected – that doesn’t solve the problem as behind him are more layers of big spenders. 

Of course, if House Republicans wanted to show real leadership, they would disband the Appropriations Committee altogether, and let all of the various policy committees have responsibility for their own spending authorization bills, and in doing so remove an institution from the House that seems to place too much emphasis, and power, on government spending.

One thing is sure, failure to take drastic action relative to this key Committee will significantly impair Boehner’s credibility to make the case that House Republicans are on a different course now than they were in 2006…

This entry was posted on Monday, November 8th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.