McConnell Reverses Course, Pledges Support for GOP Earmark Ban
EmailABC News’ Matthew Jaffe reports: The top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell today changed his stance and vowed to support an effort by other GOP lawmakers in the House and Senate to implement a party ban on earmarks, the special projects members of Congress insert into spending bills. “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,” McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor today as Congress reconvened for a lame-duck session set to focus on spending and taxes. “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,” he said. “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.” The earmarks issue has highlighted a divide within the Republican party. Leading the anti-pork charge has been Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, who has been joined by other Tea Party-aligned members. But old guard members such as McConnell had opposed the ban, on the grounds that it would “save no money” and give the executive branch “a blank check” to decide where federal money gets spent. “Every president, Republican or Democrat, would like to have a blank check from Congress to do whatever he chooses to do,” McConnell told the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington earlier this month. “You could eliminate every congressional earmark and you would save no money,” he argued, even though the anti-spending group Citizens Against Government Waste said Congress had earmarks totaling $16.5 billion in fiscal year 2010. But now, faced with a growing number of his own party’s lawmakers getting behind the ban, the Kentucky lawmaker’s stance has changed. “I’m not wild about turning over more spending authority to the executive branch, but I have come to share the view of most Americans that our nation is at a crossroads,” McConnell said today. “That we will not be able to secure the kind of future we want for our children and grandchildren unless we act, and act quickly. And that only way we will be able to turn the corner and save our future is if elected leaders like me make the kinds of difficult decisions voters are clearly asking us to make.” “Banning earmarks is another small but important symbolic step we can take to show that we’re serious, another step on the way to serious and sustained cuts in spending and to the debt.” The GOP vote, expected on Tuesday afternoon, will be conducted by secret ballot and will be non-binding, so senators would not have to follow through on it. But one Republican senator – Tom Coburn of Oklahoma – today said he will try to force Democrats to cast a vote on the earmark issue by pushing for a full Senate vote on the ban as soon as possible. Such a vote could come as soon as Wednesday when the Senate may vote on a food safety bill that they have been sitting on for over a year and a half. “No bill should move before senators vote on this matter, particularly a bill that continues the borrow-and-spend status quo voters rejected,” Coburn said in a statement today. Both parties have long used earmarks to direct money to their districts, with members of the appropriations committees in both chambers particularly eager to continue the process so they can keep directing money to favored causes. But now the long-standing use of earmarks appears in jeopardy.
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whether you call them earmarks or pork it is wasteful.Ronald McConnell is a clown. The only person that will benefit in the long run is Mitch
Posted by: Keith G | November 15, 2010, 4:35 pm 4:35 pm
Kieth G McConell said he would support it. Do you not at laest read the story before commenting??? The ball will soon be in the Dem court and we will see who is the big spender.
Posted by: billy bob | November 15, 2010, 4:43 pm 4:43 pm
Yep…just what I want in a leader. Someone who chooses to ‘flip flop’ rather than educate the dumbed down part of their electorate. LOL…LOL…I guess it is true. When you ‘live by the sword’ you also ‘die by the sword’. LOL…LOL…YOU are really ‘too much’ M,cConnell. LOL…LOL
Posted by: CND FOX | November 15, 2010, 4:44 pm 4:44 pm
CND FOX — Have you taken your meds today? What is wrong with McC finally deciding when enough is enough? If only everyone else would make that decision.
Posted by: lfrichar | November 15, 2010, 4:52 pm 4:52 pm
billy bob Said: “McConell said he would support it. Do you not at laest read the story before commenting? The ball will soon be in the Dem court and we will see who is the big spender.”
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LMAO! … Billy, you do understand that the only thing Republicans are doing is claiming that they’re going to make this a “Party Rule”. And you do understand why they’re not trying to make a bill out of it, that they can put before the congress to propose become a law, right?
They’re addressing this as ONLY a “Party Rule”, so that they can fool the American public that they’re doing something about earmarks, i.e., something that is not enforcable by LAW. If they were really serious about earmarks, they would do what we pay them to do…i.e., MAKE A LAW AGAINST EARMARKS, not just write it into their “party rules” so that at their leisure they can always violate their rules.
Only fools believe that this action is actually “doing something” about earmarks…. and you’ve bought into their “show”… LOL!
Posted by: Georgie_Bushie | November 15, 2010, 4:53 pm 4:53 pm
“ifrichar”…and what is your “solution” for an unemployment rate that will then possibly “balloon to 30%? I really don’t “get” one dimensional, black and white UNREALTISTIC/IRRATIONAL thinking. Or why you would hold a politician to that either. I’m sure that will really be “good” for the deficit. LOL…LOL This is where T-Party thinking gets very dangerous…when they have no clue at all how our economny works.
Posted by: CND FOX | November 15, 2010, 5:07 pm 5:07 pm
How funny, they loved pork just a short while ago. They’ve injected it into any bills passed under Obama and then voted no on the bills. Knowing they’d get their pork.
Posted by: secondlook | November 15, 2010, 5:38 pm 5:38 pm
This is going to be so funny people. Why did most GOP claim part of the hated stimulus money coming into their state a great for the state. Because people want things in for their local communities people. Do you get why we have them? Yes when 2010 come around they will be voted out of office because it will look as if nothing was done for the local community. People on the right are clueless. I know want the poll is saying. The American people will not see it when a local city does not get that new local park.
Posted by: Joesnopy | November 15, 2010, 5:52 pm 5:52 pm
Too Funny! Earmarks benefit US communities and republican states get the most of them. Got to love that tea party. If the democrats could just grow a spine they would clean up on the next election.
Posted by: rightbehind | November 15, 2010, 5:56 pm 5:56 pm
Flip flop or not, it’s the right thing to do. These earmarks are being unfairly used by politicians as bargaining chips. There should be “NO” earmarks ever. If, for example, my city wants a water park then we should come up with the money, not an earmark from a transportation bill or defense budgets.
Posted by: Marsha | November 15, 2010, 6:02 pm 6:02 pm
Joesnopy…have you ever seen the list of GOP politicians that not only accepted these “earmarks” or the pictures of the “photo ops” that they generated from the acceptance of them? I guarantee it will make you LOL all night long. Too bad the “Fox Noise” crowd does not pay attention to the things they should!Trouble is the GOP and conservatives know they won’t…that is why they continue to scam them and pander to them.
Posted by: CND FOX | November 15, 2010, 6:14 pm 6:14 pm
I agree with the elimination of ear marks, but we ought to call a Flip-Flop what it is. The repubs have been ruthless in criticizing dem reverals. Repubs need to be called out when they act out their own hypocrisies.
Posted by: Rick | November 15, 2010, 6:37 pm 6:37 pm
This is a no brainer. Cut defense, raise taxes on the rich, legalize and tax marijuana, get rid of PBS, get rid of all earmarks. Do not touch social security or medicare. Finally get rid of the Republican and Democrat Parties. They are both corrupted, useless and imcompetent.
Posted by: cony007 | November 15, 2010, 6:41 pm 6:41 pm
Satan’s lackey in a Brooks Brothers suit.
Posted by: cony007 | November 15, 2010, 6:52 pm 6:52 pm
How sad. Congress spends 16B a year on earmarks and Mitchy boy says we won’t save any money if they ban earmarks. No wonder they can’t balance a budget, they can’t do basic math!! What a bunch of losers, the whole lot of them! They should ALL be fired and replaced with people who want to represent us!
Posted by: RalphF | November 15, 2010, 7:18 pm 7:18 pm
Earmark ban will be good for the USA.
Posted by: GJKOTW01 | November 15, 2010, 7:43 pm 7:43 pm
Speaking of flip-flops, does anyone remember Obama’s pledge to stop earmarks if he became the president? I do, and I can also see that he’s written his name to over 9,000 earmarks since. I’m sorry, but there’s a difference between a minority leader’s stance, which will have little to no effect, and a promise from the most powerful man in the world.
Posted by: patriot1812 | November 15, 2010, 8:20 pm 8:20 pm
It’s sad when the people voting have absolutely NO clue what they’re voting on or for. If anyone thinks that Mitch the Turtle is going to ban earmarks, well, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you. Mitch the Turtle is one of the most corrupt politicians out there. Don’t believe me? Look it up.
Posted by: Let's ban the turtle | November 15, 2010, 8:21 pm 8:21 pm
Is this called flip flopping? That is very common these days, all the way to the top.
First he was for it then against it.
Important is that he fully understands it.
Posted by: kottaras | November 15, 2010, 11:15 pm 11:15 pm
LOL! …. Republicans want to change their party rules to indicate “no earmarks”, but they won’t introduce such a proposal as an actual bill to be made into law.
I wonder why?…LMAO!…maybe because they don’t intend to live up to their “party rules” and actually making it a law will definitely stop them from introducing earmarks into bills?
Voters who believe that changing “party rules” is going to result in no more earmarks, are the same fools that voted for these folks two weeks ago…the “blind as bats” voters.
Posted by: Georgie Bushie | November 16, 2010, 12:11 am 12:11 am
McConnell: “I was for earmarks before I was against them.”
LMAO!
Posted by: Georgie Bushie | November 16, 2010, 12:14 am 12:14 am
Bringing home the bacon has been a cornerstone of our political system since the beginning. We really have only ourselves to blame.
Posted by: LongT | November 16, 2010, 5:55 am 5:55 am
Big deals, small deals..I want all of these deals to go away…watching Harry Reid rub bacon fat all over the Healthcare bill to get the hold-outs onboard did it for me…lets pass clean bills.
Posted by: cindy | November 16, 2010, 5:57 am 5:57 am
“patriot1812″…and I am “certain” that you know the difference and can define those 9000 earmarks ferom bills that “kept people working” and our economy moving. It is this type of “oversimplistic thinking” that will vbe the ruin of our country.. And as long as you don’t DEMAND that politicians DEBATE these bills properly and transpaerently without misinformation and lies…nothing will change for the good of our nation.
Posted by: CND FOX | November 16, 2010, 7:45 am 7:45 am
I don’t trust Mc Connell….according to his own local newspaper…he advocated to Bush privately that he should bring home some troops to win some seats while publically opposing it to the public. Now he is changing his tune publically but I wonder what he is saying privately. I don’t think he is an honest man.
Posted by: talmag | November 16, 2010, 9:00 am 9:00 am