Conservatives Call on Bush to Veto Omnibus
Fiscal conservatives in the House and Senate are calling on President Bush to veto the Omnibus because it's stuff with egregious pork projects.
“President Bush was wise to challenge Congress to scale back what has become known as the ‘earmark favor factory’ in Washington. Special interest earmarks divert billions of dollars from higher priority needs and undermine public confidence in Congress, which is at an all-time low. President Bush should veto this bloated spending bill and force members of Congress to sacrifice some of their pet projects for higher priorities. For instance, few Americans would support spending $213,000 for olive fruit fly research in France ahead of spending that same sum to support our troops, repair dangerous bridges or provide health care for kids,” Dr. [Tom] Coburn said.
“Moreover, the presence of 9,170 earmarks in this bill has created a powerful incentive for members of both parties to look the other way in the face of budget gimmicks and accounting shenanigans that are hiding unknown billions in additional spending above the President’s request,” Dr. Coburn added.
“Once again, Democrats have broken their promises. Democrats promised to cut earmarks in half, but this bill doesn't even come close. In fact, this omnibus could spend more on pork than any appropriations bill in history. Americans want us to end the wasteful and corrupting earmark system that helps special interests at the expense of taxpayers. This bill is earmark business as usual and it deserves to be rejected,” Sen. [Jim] DeMint said.
“No American taxpayer should tolerate Members of Congress spending hard earned tax dollars on pet projects that benefit their cronies or seek to buy themselves back into office. Yet, once again, this bill demonstrates that is exactly what the Congress is doing. Every reform promise has proven hollow. The President should veto this bill and demand an end to self serving Congressional corruption,” Rep. [John] Shadegg said.
“Despite claims that they were going to clean up the pork, Democrats produced a massive spending bill that contains nearly 700 pages of 9,000 plus earmarks. Worse, Democrats are forcing members to vote on these earmarks without allowing any time to investigate their merit. Though not all these earmarks will be bad, it is clear that once again the earmarking process has lent itself to the triumph of seniority over merit, secrecy over transparency, and the special interest over the national interest. That alone would be reason enough to veto the bill. The nation would be far better off with a Continuing Resolution than passing a 3,000 page, rammed-down-your-throat spending bill chock full of uninvestigated earmarks,” Rep. [Jeb] Hensarling said.
“This omnibus bill still spends too much, includes over 9,000 earmarks, is loaded with accounting gimmicks, and members of Congress were given 24 hours to review all 3,000 pages of it. I urge the President to veto it,” Rep. [John] Campbell said.
