1776 Reasons The Dem Leadership in Congress is Failing

The Dems made all kinds of promises coming into the new Congress, including earmark reform. Some reform:

Check out the list of earmark requests in this year's defense spending bill.

Porkbusters.org posted this handy spreadsheet to track what requests are in the House bill that passed out of subcommittee yesterday.

Rep. C. W. Bill Young (R-Fla.), who chaired the subcommittee last year and previously chaired the full committee, tops the list with 59 projects. Rep. John P. Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who chairs the subcommittee that oversees defense spending, came in second with 46.

In total, there are 1,776 special projects in the bill that was reported to the full committee -- a coincidental number that conservatives should have plenty of fun with ("It's a spending revolution ... " etc.).

Whatever your take on lawmaker-requested projects, this new era of disclosure sure gives everyone plenty of paper to pore over.

The only acceptable version of earmark reform is the elimination of earmarks altogether. There's just too much opportunity for corruption and other hanky-panky to allow congressmen to keep slipping millions of your tax dollars into the hands of their friends and donors.