McConnell Backs Earmark Ban
Politico reports:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell declared Monday that he now supports a GOP ban on earmarks, a stunning reversal that puts the Kentucky Republican in line with the tea-party wing of his party and conservative senators who have long sought to kill off pet projects.
“What I’ve concluded is that on the issue of congressional earmarks, as the leader of my party in the Senate, I have to lead first by example,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “Nearly every day that the Senate’s been in session for the past two years, I have come down to this spot and said that Democrats are ignoring the wishes of the American people. When it comes to earmarks, I won’t be guilty of the same thing.”
McConnell’s backpedal on earmarks is also a remarkable win for Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who had been gaining ground in their effort to force their Republican colleagues to adopt an earmark moratorium.
McConnell secured $113 million from 58 earmarks last year and ran his 2008 campaign on his ability to deliver projects to Kentucky. And McConnell has repeatedly rejected the idea of a GOP-only ban, saying doing so would do little to rein in the budget deficit and would transfer power to the White House by giving it enormous power to set spending priorities.
As early as last week, McConnell was working behind the scenes to derail the anti-earmark proposal by DeMint and Coburn (R-Okla.), which would call on the Senate GOP Conference to impose a two-year ban.
But McConnell faced growing pressure from House Republicans and his party’s right wing, which said that the only way to rein in the excesses of Washington was to begin with killing the projects. And while members of both parties have defended what they see as legitimate earmarks — like military equipment and scientific research at local universities – the practice has been tied to corruption and controversy, including the notorious “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska.
With McConnell’s support, it seems increasingly likely that the 47-member GOP Conference will vote to accept the earmark moratorium, setting up a battle with Senate Democrats who will still write their own appropriations bills and have shown little appetite to ban the pet projects.
