Dems Cutting the Pork

The Dems are doing a few things right, including their vow to remove all the earmarks or pork projects from pending appropriations bills:

Democrats tidying up a cluster of unfinished spending bills dumped on them by departing Republican leaders in Congress will start by removing billions of dollars in lawmakers' pet projects next month.

The move, orchestrated by the incoming chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations committees, could prove politically savvy even as it proves unpopular with other members of Congress, who as a group will lose thousands of so-called earmarks.

"There will be no congressional earmarks," Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said Monday in a statement announcing their plans, which were quickly endorsed by incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D- Nev.

Earmarks are congressionally mandated projects such as grants for local governments, home-state universities and hospitals, roads, bridges and flood control construction, and economic development efforts not included in the president's spending proposals.

Often called "pork" by critics, their sponsors defend inserting the projects into spending bills by claiming that, as elected representatives, they know more about the needs of people in their states and government programs than the president or bureaucrats in the executive branch.

One of the criticisms made by conservatives regarding the GOP congress was that the GOP leaders had totally lost their way on pork, and the number and size of projects had exploded during the 12 year GOP reign. My guess is this anti-pork effort by the Dems is a short-term idea designed to take advantage of the anti-pork attitude following the election, but in the long term, the pork will be back. Congressmen can't resist the temptation to pile local projects into spending bills. They think that's how they get reelected.