Freedom Line Blog

In a surprise announcement on the Senate floor this afternoon, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that he will be supporting a moratorium on earmarks in the 112th Congress.  McConnell, who for the last couple of weeks has defended the practice of earmarks, stated:

…I have thought about these things long and hard over the past few weeks. I’ve talked with my members. I’ve listened to them. Above all, I have listened to my constituents.  And what I’ve concluded is that on the issue of congressional earmarks, as the leader of my party in the Senate, I have to lead first by example. Nearly every day that the Senate’s been in session for the past two years, I have come down to this spot and said that Democrats are ignoring the wishes of the American people. When it comes to earmarks, I won’t be guilty of the same thing.

Make no mistake. I know the good that has come from the projects I have helped support throughout my state. I don’t apologize for them. But there is simply no doubt that the abuse of this practice has caused Americans to view it as a symbol of the waste and the out-of-control spending that every Republican in Washington is determined to fight. And unless people like me show the American people that we’re willing to follow through on small or even symbolic things, we risk losing them on our broader efforts to cut spending and rein in government.

That’s why today I am announcing that I will join the Republican Leadership in the House in support of a moratorium on earmarks in the 112th Congress. …

Read McConnell’s full statement here.

Many have already chronicled the supreme selfishness and sense of entitlement exhibited by current Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, who was appointed to her seat but recently defeated in the Republican primary by West Point and Yale Law School graduate and war veteran Joe Miller.

As if striving to degrade herself even further, Murkowski offered one of the strangest rationales for her vindictive write-in candidacy:  defense of earmarks.  Yes, earmarks, those symbols of what is wrong with our irresponsible tax-and-borrow-and-spend ruling class in Washington, D.C.  Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Murkowski accused Mr. Miller of supporting what she called “some pretty radical things,” including earmarks:

He is suggesting to us … some pretty radical things.  You know, we dump Social Security.  No more Medicare.  Let’s get rid of the Department of Education.  Elimination of all earmarks.”

Senator Murkowski’s obvious sense of personal entitlement is unsavory enough.  The same goes for her defense of a a Department of Education that has only witnessed a deterioration in American scholastic achievement during its existence.  But really, Senator Murkowski?  A defense of earmarks?

FoxNews.com reports:

The 11 House Democrats led by Rep. Bart Stupak who dropped their opposition to health care reform legislation mere hours before the final vote have requested $3.4 billion in earmarks — and one watchdog group wants to know whether the money represents business as usual or political payoffs. 

“The Sunlight Foundation says it plans to track the earmark requests, which were put in one day after health care reform cleared Congress, to see whether they’re approved and whether it appears lawmakers are being rewarded for their vote. “

Of course, Stupak’s office claims there is no link between the earmarks and health care votes.   But if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…