McConnell, Senate Republicans start to feel the heat over earmarks

[cal04]

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/86933-mcconnell-senate-gop-feel-the-heat-on-earmarks

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his leadership team are drawing fire from conservatives over earmarks, an unwelcome distraction in the midst of the healthcare debate.

Senate Republicans this week will discuss adopting a one-year moratorium on earmarks, but critics expect the Senate leaders to take a softer stance on the practice of sending federal money to individual districts than did House GOP leaders.

The main reason is that five members of the Senate leadership, including McConnell (Ky.), sit on the Appropriations Committee and have doled out earmarks to their districts in recent years. Critics say they don’t expect that to change.

McConnell used his seat on the committee to win 38 solo earmarks, worth $60.2 million, for his constituents in fiscal 2010, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan group that tracks federal spending.

(snip)

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) pounced on McConnell on Monday after he criticized the administration’s allocation of stimulus funds, citing an earmark he requested a decade ago that sent $1.2 million for a conservation effort on the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador.

[rfranklin]

1. Earmarks are nothing compared to military spending and waste...

Trillions have disappeared down that rathole.

[KharmaTrain]

2. Part And Parcel

Many of those earmarks go to defense contractors...especially the rushpublican ones. If they don't get it one way, they get it another.

IRC, Pruneface McConnell got a nice 1 million dollar tax break for his buddies at Toyota...a nice little earmark.

Yet more GOOP hypocrisy exposed and totally ignored by the corporate media.

[deacon]

3. But aren't they against spending? The wheels have come off. They don't know what they're doing. n/t

[Supersedeas]

4. a one year postponement -- that's hell of a concession that Repig earmarks can only tolerate

a one year hiatus.