Entries Tagged as 'Earmarks'
KagroX at Daily Kos has been posting a summary of the Senate debate on their version of the bailout bill.
A few of the items found tucked into the bill include:
Page 279 — Rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
Page 280 — Mine rescue / mine safety
Page 290 — Motorsports racing track facility
Page 290 — Hurricane Katrina and Gulf opportunity zone
Page 295 — Wool modifications
Page 296 — Permanent authority for undercover operations
Page 297 — Child tax credit
Page 300 — Children and wooden arrows
If the “Page 290” item is what I think it is, then doesn’t that put McCain into a bit of a quandary? After all, he has (rightfully!) taken pride in his anti-earmark stance, and he has called for the bailout to be launched…..
Tags:
Congress · Economy · Bailout · Earmarks · McCain
29 January 2008 · Comments Off
I posted earlier about thinking I heard a veiled reference to signing statements in the State of the Union address. Looking through the text of the speech, I appear to have been in error:
The people’s trust in their government is undermined by congressional earmarks, special interest projects that are often snuck in at the last minute without discussion or debate. Last year I asked you to voluntarily cut the number and cost of earmarks in half. I also asked you to stop slipping earmarks into committee reports that never even come to a vote.
Unfortunately, neither goal was met. So this time, if you send me an appropriations bill that does not cut the number and cost of earmarks in half, I’ll send it back to you with my veto. And tomorrow I will issue an executive order that directs federal agencies to ignore any future earmark that is not voted on by Congress. If these items are truly worth funding, the Congress should debate them in the open and hold a public vote.
(Emphasis mine)
I’ve become too cynical, perhaps. I can respect the issuance of an executive order against earmark expenditures. Whether it will have teeth or be enforced, remains to be seen.
(*yawn* Is it January 20th yet?)
Tags:
White House · Bush · Earmarks · Signing Statements · State of the Union
28 January 2008 · Comments Off
Was it me, or was the State of the Union speech rather uninspiring, if not boring?
Granted, the talk on stopping earmarks sounded interesting and promising…although his veiled promise to use signing statements as part of his strategy to stop them sounded like an ominous way to achieve back-door legitimization of his favorite trick.
As for the rest…didn’t they seem to mostly be the same old unfulfilled proposals? (Well, with the exception of the monologue on the stimulus package, the substance of which isn’t particularly new.)
Tags:
White House · Bush · Earmarks · Signing Statements · State of the Union
