Hensarling Fights to Protect Taxpayer Dollars from Pork Projects
Congressman Jeb Hensarling, a leader in the fight to protect taxpayer dollars from the broken earmark system in Congress, released the following statement after President Obama broke his pledge and signed the Omnibus bill containing nearly 9,000 earmarks:
"When it comes to Congressional earmarks, there aren't just a few bad apples, the barrel is full of them. The American people have wised up to the fact that too often Congressional earmarks are about using their paychecks to preserve a Congressman's or Senator's paycheck.
Recently, more and more of my colleagues have followed my lead and imposed a personal earmark moratorium. Until we can solve the problems associated with earmarking once and for all, this will go a long way towards re-establishing fiscal responsibility in Washington. Congress has gotten into the very bad habit of wasting taxpayer's money on ridiculous pork-barrel spending projects like $143,000 "to develop and expand a comprehensive online encyclopedia', $100,000 for "the Seals as Sentinels' program in Maine and $1.9 million for the "Pleasure Beach Water Taxi Service' in Connecticut.
Conservatives have said for some time that the earmarking process has lent itself to the triumph of seniority over merit, secrecy over transparency, and the special interest over the national interest - and that has now been confirmed by President Obama. The President cannot claim he intends to reform pork barrel spending in Washington and then sign a bill with almost 8,600 pork barrel projects in it."
If President Obama is serious about reform, he would veto this bill and declare an immediate moratorium on the practice until the system is reformed. At a time when families are tightening their belt and making changes in the family budget, it's about time Government followed suit and stopped using their tax dollars for pet projects."