Senate Blocks Moratorium on Earmarks

AP via SFGate ^ | 3/13/8 | ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer

[pankot]

Remember what happened to the Roman Senate.

[hosepipe]

Let the graft begin... FREE money for all.. WOO HAH...

[dighton]

Yes. Somewhere in the declension — I’ve lost what Latin I ever knew — senex becomes senilis.

[doc1019]

Refresh my memory.

[TheBattman]

and a right under the power of the purse awarded to Congress by the Founding Fathers.

Someone point that "right" out in the US Constitution for me please.

[ari-freedom]

It is a shame that Hillary and Obama are more conservative than many republicans

[TheBattman]

That clip you quoted is a darned lie. The plan did NOT cut any social spending, only reduced the growth in the budget for those areas. Those handout programs would continue to grow... just not as fast.

[Octar]

Good news. Bolsters McCain’s stance. Hillary And Ears will have problems because they were earmark hogs, McCain won’t because he didn’t use them.

[CharlesWayneCT]

The House passed a $3 trillion federal budget plan that would provide generous increases to domestic programs but bring the government's ledger back into the black by letting all of Bush's tax cuts expire at the end of 2010 as scheduled.

Of course this is a stupid thing to do. But wouldn't that already be the default projection for the budget, since the law has them expiring?

In other words, they aren't bringing the budget "back into" anything, right now the budget projection should show a healthy surplus after the tax cuts expire, and they are spending that surplus.

[AFPhys]

“Earmarks” == “Pork barrel spending”

[ari-freedom]

it’s not even about the amount of $ but about the power. Pork is the glue to stick together support for even bigger spending bills.
Incumbents with no ideas keep their power just by bringing the pork. Elections need to be won with ideas and not by patronage perks.

[PizzaDriver]

can Someone post a list of the 25 “Republican Senators” that LOVE earmarks?

[PizzaDriver]

can Someone post a list of the 25 “Republican Senators” that LOVE earmarks?

[AFPhys]

Section. 8.

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
-—<>-—<>-—<>-—<>-—<>-—

Like it or not, here it is... Courts have supported the Hamiltonian view that “general Welfare” is very broad in scope, and that earmarks are fine and dandy as long as they promote “general Welfare of the United States”. Madison argued for a much more narrow interpretation, but the courts have not supported his argument.

[El Gran Salseron]

“and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States;”

and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States as a sovereign government;

is probably how it should have read.

I’m suffering from illness and fatigue, in other words, I’m sick and tired of it for having to give my tax dollars to lowlife freeloaders but I suppose that I’m preaching to the choir here.

[purpleraine]

and the other half in tax breaks, we’d skyrocket!

[Salvation]

U. S. Senate

[NRA2BFree]

McCain is against pork spending. That is one thing that I like about him. The rest of them need to be tied up and thrown on the railroad tracks.

[Amendment10]

The referenced article is another AP article reflecting the media's ignorance of the Constitution and its history.

This post (<-click), while addressing a tax related thread, explains why the 71 Senators that rejected the curb on pork-barrel spending are scandalously ignoring their oaths to defend the Constitution.

How can the free press protect us from a federal government that is operating outside the restraints of the federal Constitution, particularly where constitutionally unauthorized federal spending is concerned, if the press is as ignorant of the Constitution and its history as the people are?

http://tinyurl.com/npt6t
http://tinyurl.com/hehr8

The people need to petition big-shot federal spenders who are unthinkingly following in the footsteps of FDR's dirty federal spending politics, demanding that they resign from their jobs.

[TheBattman]

I have known about that Section. But as you pointed out, Madison’s point of view (and that of others of that time as well) don’t point towards the Hamilton interpretation.

Of course, the real root of this issue is the METHOD of getting earmarks for their home districts... They don’t bring them up as separate bills, they are covertly attached to completely unrelated bills so that they can slide through on the coattails of real legislation. At minimum, this is dishonest and immoral. At best, it is distortion of Section 8.