So, how’s that “culture of corruption” thing coming along in Congress? As it happens, pretty comically.

Here’s the story in brief. House Democrats passed an earmark reform bill. It was kind of light, but not a bad start at all. It would require congressmen to fill out a public disclosure form every time they requested one, insisted that they affirm that neither they nor their spouses would profit from the earmark, and drew up a definition for earmarks that would make them tougher to hide. Like I said, kind of modest, but a good starting point.

Now the Senate has been working on their own earmark reform bill which is even lighter than the one the House just passed. Republican Senators, feeling a little puckish, decided to tack an amendment onto the Senate bill. The amendment, put there by Jim DeMent, was identical to what the House had just passed with overwhelming Democratic approval.

Then, hilarity ensued:

Numerous Democrats instantly denounced it, apparently unaware (or unconcerned) that the language had been sponsored by Ms. Pelosi.

Democrat Dick Durbin then moved to table the amendment, though he lost by 51 to 46. Of the 46 Senators who voted to banish Ms. Pelosi’s reform, 38 of them were her fellow Democrats. The seven Republicans who went along with Mr. Reid included some of the GOP’s biggest spenders (Trent Lott) and Members of the Appropriations Committee, aka Earmark Central Station. When Senator DeMint then moved to have his amendment accepted by voice vote — which is customary — Mr. Durbin objected. The effect of these procedural run-arounds was to give Mr. Reid more time to twist a few more Democratic arms into killing earmark reform.

By our deadline last night, he still hadn’t succeeded, though Senate sources told us that Mr. Reid was considering filing for cloture on the entire ethics bill, thereby foreclosing a vote on the current DeMint amendment.

Which leaves us with one of two things happening. Either Harry “I was born a poor white child” Reid and Dick “American soldiers are just like genodical killers” Durbin are completely against even modest earmark reform or they’re just against any proposal put forth by a Republican, no matter what that proposal is.

Remember, folks. It’s not your money, it’s theirs.

UPDATE: Do we have a Raging Misplaced Priorities Alert happening here? Perhaps so. Senator Durbin actually does care about taxpayer money!

It’s time for President Bush to face the reality of Iraq. And the reality is this: America has paid a heavy price. We have paid with the lives of more than 3,000 of our soldiers. We have paid with the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform. And we’ve paid with the hard-earned tax dollars of the families of America.

So, we want strict accountability on money being used to help an recently-oppressed people fight off hostile outside nations and build a free democracy but not on pork-barrel vote-buying?

According to Dick Durbin, heck yeah!

No related posts.

Category: Our New Democratic Overlords, The Economy and Your Money