Posted on 01/12/2008 4:08:06 PM PST by DogByte6RER
Make It Jeff Flake!
Help Fight Pork: Support Rep. Flake for the Appropriations Committee
"With Roger Wicker being named a United States Senator, there is an opening on the Appropriations Committee for the U.S. House of Representatives. The Republicans get to fill the seat. The Republican leadership has a great opportunity to prove that it is serious about earmark reform and a conservative approach to spending. It's time to put some action behind their rhetoric." --RedState: The Road to Recovery Begins with Jeff Flake on Appropriations
"In four terms in Congress, Mr. Flake has never sought a special bridge, courthouse, parking lot, or teapot museum for his district. Republican leaders were so incensed at his role in exposing GOP earmarks in 2006 that they booted him off the Judiciary Committee." -- Wall Street Journal: The Anti-Appropriator, Jan. 8, 2008
Read Rep. Flake's Letter to Minority Leader Boehner
Here's what you can do:
(Excerpt) Read more at makeitflake.com ...
The Honorable John Boehner
Republican Leader
The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Republican Leader Boehner:
I am contacting you regarding my interest in being considered for the Republican vacancy on the House Appropriations Committee.
We all recognize that one of the major factors in the loss of our congressional majority was our failure to control spending. We simply didn't give the voters much reason to think that we still believed in limited government.
During the first session of the 110th Congress, we Republicans started to regain our fiscal footing. With the help of the President, we were able to slow the growth of government to a rate not seen in recent years. We held firm on the overall spending amount, and the Democrats were forced to move in our direction.
But while our party has done a bit better in terms of the level of spending, we still have a huge credibility problem regarding the type of spending we're doing. For all the talk about earmark reform, by the end of the year Republicans requested and received nearly as many pork barrel projects as the Democrats. It's tough to argue that there is a real difference between the two parties on this issue.
Over the past few years I have offered nearly 100 amendments on the House floor to strike wasteful earmarks in appropriations bills, with very limited success. By the time these bills come to the House floor the die is pretty much cast.
This doesn't have to be the case at the committee level. There are currently 29 Republican slots on the Appropriations Committee. At present, all 29 Republicans participate to some degree or another in the earmarking process and are thus subject to logrolling. Consequently, far too little oversight occurs at the committee level.
Wouldn't it make sense to have at least one Republican member of the Appropriations committee who doesn't earmark?
You have often said that "we have to earn our majority back." I agree. But I think we can all agree that earning our majority back is going to take more aggressive action on earmark reform than we took during the first session of the 110th Congress.
Thank you for your consideration of my request.
Sincerely,
JEFF FLAKE
Member of Congress
ping
Pro-shamnesty, welcher on term limits. Flake needs to go.
I didn’t know that sorry to hear it.
What did I miss? Who is Mr. Wicker replacing in the Senate - McCain or Kyl?
But as others have mentioned, Flake is very pro-amnesty. I can’t see how he’d be good at cutting “pork”; he will need all the funds he can get his mitts on because of all the illegals costing his state millions in educational and health care costs.
Whatever else happens, even if you come to disagree with term limits, you keep your word when you make promises or you can’t be trusted. It negates whatever else good you do.
I think he is replacing Trent Lott who resigned his Senate seat so he can cash in on K Street...
OK, thanks. I misread it, thinking that because Flake was from AZ, he was replacing one of those two. Now I got it!
Makes you wish you could take back post #5. ;-)
I oppose amnesty, but I think Flake would do great in this committee.
He is a real budget warrior.
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