Word: earmarked
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...then there's the McCain moment. Why did it galvanize the crowd? Perhaps because it brought together three Republican themes: the Democrats are the party of big spending (the museum earmark) and cultural liberalism (the Woodstock concert), while the GOP is the party that understands war ("I was tied up at the time"). It's true that McCain is uniquely qualified to make that last point--but if he's not the presidential candidate, he can advance it as the vice-presidential nominee or as a prospective Secretary of Defense. At a time of war, in a culturally conservative country...
...Forty-five percent of the money spent on American roads comes to the states from the Federal Government, but Congress hasn't raised the gas tax, its main source of highway funds, since 1993. And that's just fine by people who find the free market efficient and earmark-free...
After the collapse of a Minneapolis highway bridge that killed 13 people in August, critics lashed out at the lack of federal spending on basic infrastructure maintenance. Remarkably, Congress nonetheless plans to earmark more than $2 billion in the transportation-appropriations bill for frivolous home-district projects. Here's a plate of pork projects from the bill's House and Senate versions that won't make our roads any safer...
...they still serve as a symbolic line in the sand. Increasingly, though, the group has started winning votes. Although the group's signature concern has been spending, their biggest victory was killing the immigration bill. They also held up the lobbying reform bill until much more stringent controls on earmark spending were included. Last December, just days after he was elected head of the Steering Committee, DeMint brought down his own party's attempt to pass the remaining 2007 appropriations bills, saving the government $17 billion by forcing it to resort to 2006 levels. And in 2005, Coburn...
...earmark explosion - a 1,200% increase since the 1991 bill - was a symptom of this mindless goodie-bagging. And Young, who is now the subject of a federal corruption investigation, was by no means the only offender. Democratic Congressman James Oberstar of Minnesota - his successor as chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee - bragged about bagging 57 "high-priority projects" for his district in the bill, including a visitor center at Mesabi Station, a bridge for snowmobiles in Onamia and a new $3 million highway between County Road 565 in Hoyt Lakes and the intersection of Highways...