Right Voices

Here were his words of warning:

I’m disappointed that Congress resorted to passing all this spending in one massive, more than 1,400-page omnibus bill, rather than considering and passing individual spending bills in the normal process. The omnibus bill was approved at the last minute, nearly three months after the end of the fiscal year. When Congress wastes so much time and leaves its work to the final days before Christmas it is not a responsible way to run this government.

Another thing that’s not responsible is the number of earmarks that Congress included in a massive spending bill. Earmarks are special interest items that are slipped into big spending bills like this one — often at the last hour, without discussion or debate. Congressional leaders ran in the last election on a promise that they would curb earmarks. And they made some progress and there’s more transparency in the process, but they have not made enough progress. The bill they just passed includes about 9,800 earmarks. Together with the previously passed defense spending bill, that means Congress has approved about 11,900 earmarks this year. And so I’m instructing Budget Director Jim Nussle to review options for dealing with the wasteful spending in the omnibus bill.

Ed Explains why that was so important:

Congress can blame itself for leaving this loophole, and it stems from their eagerness to airdrop earmarks rather than account for them as promised. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid passed reform rules that supposedly barred earmarks in conference reports. However, 90% of the earmarks in the omnibus bill never entered the legislative language, making a mockery of their claims to reform.

According to Brian Riedl :

Most earmarks are not written into the actual appropriations bills that are signed into law. Rather, they are included in conference reports, which are explanatory statements that accompany the legislation to the President’s desk. Because they are not technically part of the bill, the Executive Branch is not legally bound to implement conference reports. The President could simply direct agencies to ignore the earmarks listed in the conference reports. The funds would still be spent, but the agencies would have the discretion to distribute the funds by merit rather than congressional diktat.
It is not clear whether the President has that option this year. The appropriations bills’ texts contain several sections stating that a certain amount of a program’s budget “shall be available for projects and in the amounts specified in the explanatory statement described in section….” This may effectively make many of the earmarks in the conference reportslegally binding. The White House, as well as Members of Congress, should investigate whether that is the case. If they determine the conference reports’ earmarks remain non-binding, then President Bush should issue an Executive Order cancelling all 11,331 earmarks and requiring thatall government grants be distributed by merit or statutory formula.

Do you fiscal conservatives see where this is going?

An executive order, meanwhile, would have the effect that Congress supposedly intended with its rules changes this year. It wouldn’t apply to one budget year, but to all subsequent budgets after its issuance, if Bush desires. An EO would prevent any federal agencies from spending money on conference report earmarks until Bush or his successors rescinded the EO.

That would put Congress and the porkers at a huge disadvantage. Congressional leadership would have to take action to restore earmarks produced in a process they specifically disavowed at the beginning of the session. They would have to argue against Bush taking the same discipline to budgeting that they themselves endorsed. A future President would have to rescind an order to enable unaccountable pork-barrel processes and then stand for election on that record.

Magnificent! This is his time and I should hope he uses it wisely! The Executive Order is just what we wanted! Finally, a fiscally responsible decision! Do The right thing Mr. President!

Mark Tapscott has more

Trackposted to The Midnight Sun, Rosemary’s Thoughts, guerrilla radio, 123beta, Adam’s Blog, Right Truth, Stix Blog, Big Dog’s Weblog, Leaning Straight Up, Cao’s Blog, The Amboy Times, Chuck Adkins, Conservative Cat, Nuke’s, Faultline USA, Allie is Wired, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Walls of the City, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate’s Cove, Celebrity Smack, and The Pink Flamingo, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.