If you ask Republicans around the country, they'll probably tell you that Tuesday's election results were all about pushing back against excessive government spending. Problem is, they may have forgotten to elect anyone who's actually planning on real budget cuts.
Rep. John Boehner, presumptively the next Speaker of the House and a longtime rhetorical foe of earmark spending in its present form, told a Fox News host on Thursday that the proposed ban on congressional earmarks he'd been talking up was officially off the table.
Boehner, who has personally upheld the no-earmark principle, had before the elections advocated a year-long ban on financial appropriations for individual districts. Now he says there will be a "moratorium," but has not said for how long and refuses to hold fellow Republicans to his own standard of never bringing tax dollars back to constituents.
So, why a reversal on the earmark ban? "Only because some things that people call earmarks here, uh, wouldn't classify as an earmark to the American people," he explained to Fox News host Bret Baier.
The refusal to ban earmarks should not come as a surprise to media savvy tea party Republicans. Appearing on Fox News just days before the elections, Boehner repeatedly refused to answer whether or not the party would end the practice, saying instead that a GOP-run House would not conduct "business as usual."
Sorry, tea parties, but it's not like New York Times columnist Frank Rich didn't try to warn you.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/house-gop-leader-forsakes-tea-parties-takes-earmark-ban-table/
Live the lie....
