Some GOP critics love their earmarks

Original Link: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/some-gop-critics-of-omnibus-love-their-earmarks-2009-03-07.html

By Alexander Bolton

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) and other Republicans are drawing criticism for sponsoring hundreds of millions of earmarks in the $410 billion omnibus that they themselves have blasted as fiscally irresponsible.

Vitter is the most obvious target because he holds himself a fiscal conservative, a position that often serves him well. In the midst of a heated debate over earmarks, however, Vitter finds himself ducking charges of hypocrisy.

The criticisms undercut the GOP’s weekend effort to frame omnibus as a Democratic Christmas tree.

“Even though Vitter has been styling himself as a fiscal conservative he has been more willing to team up with [Democratic Sen. Mary] Landrieu [La.] and belly up to the bar and take more than his fair share of earmarks,” said Steve Ellis, the vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a group that tracks earmarks.

Vitter, for example, threatened to hold up Senate action on the omnibus unless Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) promised him a vote on an amendment to eliminate automatic pay increases for lawmakers.

“In a lot of ways he’s trying have his cake and eat it too,” said Ellis. “He talks about being fiscal conservative and then brags back home what he was able to deliver to the state.”

John Alyosius Farrell, Tip O’Neill’s biographer, singled Vitter out for ridicule on the Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

“The self-righteousness among Republicans on the issue of government spending is rank and overwhelming. The GOP is acting as if federal spending is a Democratic monopoly.”

The Huffington Post, a liberal-leaning online publication, ran an article discussing Vitter’s earmarks entitled, “Red States Gobble Up Omnibus Earmarks.”

This barrage of criticism comes as a surprise considering that Vitter has positioned himself as one of the staunchest fiscal conservatives in the Senate.

Vitter, however, defends his actions even while he criticizes the torrid spending pace Congress has set in the last six months.

“I have strongly supported fundamental spending reform, including complete openness and transparency and significantly lower budget number,” Vitter told The Hill in a statement. “As I do that, though, I am proud to stand by my specific funding requests for critical transportation, law enforcement and hurricane recovery needs.”

“These represent serious Louisiana needs, which have not been met even as Congress has passed trillion dollar spending and bailout bills,” said Vitter.

Vitter, of course, represents New Orleans, which is still recovering from the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina.

A study of nearly 9,000 earmarks in the omnibus showed that showed that Vitter is the fifth-biggest recipient of earmarked funds in the Congress.

Vitter has sponsored or cosponsored nearly $250 million in earmarks, according to the study by Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Two other Republicans topped the list of biggest earmarkers: Sen. Thad Cochran (Miss.), senior Republican on the Appropriations Committee; and Sen. Roger Wicker (Miss). Of the ten lawmakers who sponsored or cosponsored the largest sums of earmarked funds, 6 were Republicans.

Several of them, such as Cochran and Sens. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), are members of the Appropriations panel.

This has caused grumbling on conservative Websites.

A contributor to a discussion forum on conservative television host Sean Hannity’s website lamented that Cochran, Wicker and Vitter were three of the biggest sponsors of earmarks in the omnibus.

“So much for GOP fiscal responsibility,” griped the anonymous commentator.

"Leading Republicans in the House and Senate pushed for a better solution: a spending freeze that would strip the omnibus bill of all its airdropped earmarks and hold government spending at current levels,” House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio), wrote in an opinion editorial published Saturday. “Democratic leaders in both chambers scoffed at this common-sense proposal.”

Vitter managed to steer hundreds of millions of dollars to his home state despite not serving on Appropriations by teaming up with a Democrat, Landrieu, his home state colleague.

As a member of the Appropriations panel who faced a difficult re-election last year, Landrieu received special consideration from Democratic leaders who ultimately control Congress’s purse strings.

Landrieu sponsored more money in earmarks than any Democrat in Congress.

Nevertheless, Vitter told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that he would vote against the omnibus because it is “just too expensive.”

Vitter claimed it is not inconsistent to win money for projects in a bill likely to become law but vote against it because of broad fiscal concerns.