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“If you want a wounded bull on the floor of the Senate, pass this amendment,” thundered Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who inserted money for two bridges in a transportation bill — a practice known as congressional earmarking.
Democrat Patty Murray of Washington warned: “If we start cutting funding for individual projects, your project may be next.”
Coburn’s amendment failed, but it contributed to a wave of bad publicity that eventually doomed one of the Alaska bridges. It also kicked off the senator’s crusade against what he considers wasteful earmarks. Elected in 2004 after spending six years in the House, he has spent the past two years making life difficult for colleagues trying to steer money to local pet projects.
“If you want a wounded bull on the floor of the Senate, pass this amendment,” thundered Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who inserted money for two bridges in a transportation bill — a practice known as congressional earmarking.
Democrat Patty Murray of Washington warned: “If we start cutting funding for individual projects, your project may be next.”
Coburn’s amendment failed, but it contributed to a wave of bad publicity that eventually doomed one of the Alaska bridges. It also kicked off the senator’s crusade against what he considers wasteful earmarks. Elected in 2004 after spending six years in the House, he has spent the past two years making life difficult for colleagues trying to steer money to local pet projects.
Although pork wasn’t on the lunch menu, it was the main topic of discussion for Sen. Tom Coburn at Wednesday’s meeting of the Kiwanis Club.
“I’m just going to spend a few minutes talking with you about what’s going on in Washington and what we’re trying to accomplish,” said Coburn. “The rest will be a dialogue with you here.”
He began by explaining a little of his own personal history, but ended by looking toward the future, and addressing the priorities he feels are important.
“What do we want to leave our kids?” Coburn asked the audience. “We want to leave them opportunity. We want to leave them freedom and liberty. We want to leave them with a sound fiscal policy.”
It should come as no surprise that he was unsuccessful. The measure failed by a lopsided vote of 82 to 14.
“The bridge in Minnesota didn’t fail as much as Congress failed,” Coburn said. “We failed to direct dollars where they were needed most because this body is obsessed with parochial pork-barrel politics.”
The House passed a similar bill prior to the Minneapolis bridge collapse that also was packed with pork totaling $2.2 billion.
The projects include:
* A museum to present and interpret the colorful and fascinating history of Las Vegas — $200,000.
* A peace garden on North Dakota’s border with Canada — $450,000.
* A minor-league baseball stadium in Billings, Montana — $500,000.
* A mule and packers museum in Bishop (population: 3,575), Calif. — $50,000.
Senator Tom Coburn in an effort to save my money and yours too has made headlines recently for embarking on a pork chop crusade (pun intended). Let’s hope that every other Senator starts this Pork Chopping crusade.
“No one in America seriously believes that bike paths, peace gardens and baseball stadiums are more important national priorities than bridge and road repairs.” Senator Tom Coburn
This was a post from Brendan Steinhauser over at FreedomWorks.
Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn is offering several common-sense earmarks to the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development bill.
Here are a couple of the best ones:
* Amdt. 2810 would prohibit spending federal transportation funds on earmarks until all structurally deficient bridges in the U.S. are repaired
* Amdt. 2813 would require that the housing needs of all Louisiana residents displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are met before spending money to design or construct a Wetland Center in Lake Charles, Louisiana
Instead of prioritizing the funds to take care of the most pressing issues, Congress continues to earmark money for wasteful projects. And what will happen when the next bridge collapses or the next natural disaster occurs? The politicians will scream that they need more taxpayer money to rebuild. Talk about a disaster.