Free Republic

Senate Republicans voted Thursday to adopt a permanent ban on earmarks, in a move that signals as long as the GOP controls the chamber the practice of pork-barrel spending won’t return. A ban had been adopted every Congress since House Republicans imposed it after taking the majority in that chamber in 2011, but it needed to be renewed every two years. Sen. Ben Sasse said it was time for the GOP to make the ban permanent. “The last thing taxpayers need is for the same politicians who racked up a $22 trillion national debt to go on an earmark binge,”...

WASHINGTON -- The Senate has rejected a GOP bid to ban the practice of larding spending bills with earmarks -- those pet projects that lawmakers love to send home to their states.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Tuesday rejected a GOP bid to ban the practice of larding spending bills with earmarks - those pet projects that lawmakers love to send home to their states. Most Democrats and a handful of Republicans combined to defeat the effort, which would have effectively forbidden the Senate from considering legislation containing earmarks like road and bridge projects, community development funding, grants to local police departments and special-interest tax breaks. The 39-56 tally, however, was a better showing for earmark opponents, who lost a 29-68 vote earlier this year. Any votes next year should be closer because...

The proposed earmark moratorium that the Republican Senate caucus will vote on tomorrow has pitted Oklahoma's two conservative senators against one another. "Republicans can send a signal that they get it," earmark opponent Tom Coburn tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD. "Or they can send a signal that they continue to not get it and say they're not going to change. And if they do that, they're going to pay for it at the ballot box." Should Republicans who oppose the moratorium be worried about a primary challenge? "You bet," says Coburn. "They sure should." "If you can't fix earmarks, you're never...