The battle for sane budgets
June 28, 2007| By Nathaniel Ward
As the Senate wrangled with immigration proposals, the House moved ahead with spending bills for next fiscal year. The spending process, unfortunately, makes clear that though many politicians speak its praises, “fiscal responsibility” remains just a catchphrase.
For example, Heritage’s Brian Riedl, an expert on the federal budget, reports that “the amount of pork barrel spending a community receives is heavily dependent on whether its Representative serves on the House Appropriations Committee.” In other words, the select few Congressmen who divvy up your tax dollars are the most likely to spend it on wasteful projects in their hometowns.
Liberals were voted into office last fall in part based on a pledge to clean up Washington and its free-spending ways, especially these sorts of wasteful projects, Heritage President Ed Feulner writes in The Washington Times. “But when it came to earmarks, the new majority seemed determined not only to repeat the mistakes of the recent past, but to go even further.”
While conservatives in Congress have recently been able to stop some of the worst liberal shenanigans on pork, their work remains cut out for them, Feulner argues. “Now conservatives need to take the next step and start reining in wasteful spending. That means going after earmarks, but also requiring actual cuts in spending bills. And there's plenty of fat in the House bills to target.”
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
