Posted by
Arnie on Tuesday, December 12, 2006 10:12:47 AM
When the media is on your side, the advantage is overwhelming. Is there any doubt in your mind that the mainstream old media favors the Democratic Party about 94% of the time? I just invented that figure, but it sure appears that way to me.
Anyway, the latest news I happened across this morning was a story out of AP by Andrew Taylor.
Dems to wipe out Pet Projects in Bills. The democrats “will start by removing billions of dollars in lawmakers' pet projects next month.” "There will be no congressional earmarks," Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said Monday in a statement announcing their plans, which were quickly endorsed by incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D- Nev. Remember those words.
Ok, so now the democrats want to appear to be the party of smaller, more fiscally responsible government. Over the past few years the republicans have certainly not been shown that desire, as they have inserted and allowed hundreds of special earmarks on spending bills to the detriment of the federal budget. They failed to boot the earmarks, and this was one of the main factors that lead to their demise. But now the boots belong to the democrats and they want you to know that they know how to use them. At least they understand how to get the best mileage of the strategy to show forth the ‘new direction’ for Washington. Time will tell.
Now, do you want to read the rest of the story? This business of blocking earmarks (the old boot kick) has been started by two Republican Senators, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, and Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who have been on this rampage for some time now even to the dismay of republican leadership. Nov 27
Better late than never and
10,000 pork projects denied. These two Senators alone have begun that campaign long before this ‘new’ Democratic Party responsibility theme became the rallying cry to boot the republicans out. The strategy worked.
But, did you also know that, because of the work of Coburn and DeMint (and I must confess that Barrack Obama also sponsored the bill) that the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (S. 2590) has become law as of September this year. In brief it’s been called the Sunlight bill. A good name. “The Sunlight Foundation was founded in 2006 with the goal of using technology to enable citizens to learn more about what their elected representatives are doing, to help reduce corruption, ensure greater transparency and accountability by government, and foster public trust in the vital institutions of democracy.” It goes into effect in January, and already there is a new
Sunlight Website. On a side note: the bill expires in 2011. Why would a bill allowing public inspection of their doings expire? When will the IRS expire? Only when The Fair Tax is passed, but that is another story I’ll get to later.
But during the process of getting this legislation passed, guess who put a secret hold on it. None other than the same Senator named above, the honorable Robert Byrd. Why would he block a transparency bill, when he professes to be against earmarks? Now about 7/8 of the way down (how many of us read all of a news bulletin) in the above AP story was this quote from Byrd: “lawmakers could re-apply for home-state projects next year when Congress turns to the fiscal 2008 budget cycle after reforms of the earmarking process are put in place.” Did you notice that the honorable Byrd used some new words, “home-state projects”? A new definition for earmarks, or if you want to get Muslims upset, call it “pork”.
Summary. The Democrats are temporarily playing the fiscal responsibility game, but thanks to republicans Coburn and DeMint, and yes, democrat Obama also, there is in place a new tool that we folks out here can access and with just a few mouse clicks can track federal spending as never before. So, be on the look out for “home-state project” spending amendments to everything. But now, the Sunlight Foundation will shed light on both republican and democrat spending projects.
Three cheers for transparency.
Take a peak at the Sunlight Website. As I See It Now.