Claire McCaskill

McCaskill: House GOP Is Skirting Its Own Earmark Ban

Igor Bobic | May 19, 2011, 4:40PM

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO)

When it comes to earmarks, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) is accusing House Republicans of wanting to have their cake and eat it too.

House Republicans, she told reporters earlier this week, have added numerous line items for special projects into the defense-authorization bill, and thus, are violating their own self-imposed earmark moratorium.

Read more »

Lindsey Graham

Showdown Over Port vs. Pork Averted: Graham and Reid Reach Deal

Susan Crabtree | April 14, 2011, 7:34PM

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

Another shutdown showdown averted -- this time the shutdown of the Senate over the paltry sum of $50,000.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have reached an accommodation to provide $50,000 for a study on deepening the Port of Charleston, and now Graham is standing down and is no longer threatening to "tie the Senate in knots" and block Obama's nominations from winning Senate approval.

"Now, it's not often that I'm a cheerleader for pieces of legislation that are suggested
and moved forward by Republicans, but I was on this one," Reid told Graham in a remarks on the Senate floor Thursday evening.

Read more »

Jim DeMint

Senator Tea Party In Bind Over Port vs. Pork

Susan Crabtree | April 14, 2011, 5:14PM

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)

Update: Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-SC) spokesman accuses Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) of being a johnny-come-lately to securing funds for the Port of Charleston. He says "era of earmarks is over" and earmarks are backlogged at Army Corps of Engineers, exacerbating the problem with the port funding. Instead of trying to directing the Army Corp to fund the study, he wants to create a commission to ensure projects are funded on their merits. More developments, including DeMint spokesman's full statement.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), or Senator Tea Party as he's sometimes known, has found himself between a bit of a rock and a hard place over spending for a job-dependent project in his district and his role as the leading anti-earmark crusader in the upper chamber.

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), a prominent House Democrat, on Thursday issued a scathing indictment of DeMint, his GOP South Carolina colleague, for effectively killing jobs in the state by refusing to back money for a study on deepening the Port of Charleston.

But others, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who is threatening to "tie the Senate in knots" over the funds, have said DeMint supports federal funds for the port and is privately helping to secure them.

Read more »

Lindsey Graham

Graham's $50K For Port Was Originally An Earmark DeMint Killed

Susan Crabtree | April 13, 2011, 12:42PM

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is waging a one-man war with the White House over $50,000 for a project in his home state that was nixed in the budget deal, but he really has his rock-ribbed conservative, Tea Party-loyalist South Carolina colleague Sen. Jim DeMint to blame for losing the money for a study on deepening the Port of Charleston.

Graham publicly blasted the Obama administration Tuesday for failing to include the funding for the study in its budget request laid out in February and threatened to block all of the President's nominations in the Senate because it was left out of the budget deal.

Graham on Tuesday took pains to say he is not requesting an earmark, but there have been several attempts to earmark money for the port study. DeMint effectively killed every one and refused to join a letter to the White House with the rest of the South Carolina delegation requesting the funds.

Read more »

Lindsey Graham

Graham Vows To 'Tie Senate In Knots' Over $50K Left Out Of Budget Deal

Susan Crabtree | April 13, 2011, 9:08AM

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

Update: Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-SC) office issued a detailed defense of his threats to "tie the Senate in knots" and block all of Obama nominations over $50,000 left out of last week's 11th-hour budget deal for a study on deepening the Port of Charleston.

For critics who said the state should come up with its own funds for the Army Corp of Engineers' study to deepen the port, Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop said such an easy solution is actually impossible under federal law.

The South Carolina State Ports Authority, which is responsible for operations of the Charleston Port, is ready to write the check for the state's share of the the study, but federal law requires Congress to cough up funds to enable the Army Corp of Engineers to move forward with the study. It would be the second step in the process; a first study already determined a federal interest in deepening the harbor.

"The Corps requires virtually all ports around the country to shoulder some of the costs of feasibility studies, engineering, and design on harbor deepening," Bishop said. "South Carolina is ready to go. Now we're waiting on the feds to kick in their share. Without that green light, our state is stuck in neutral and cannot proceed."

Not all Republicans were celebrating Tuesday about the fine print of the $38.5 billion in cuts House Republicans managed to wrangle in last week's 11th-hour budget showdown. Tea Party loyalists who wanted tens of billions more cut from this year's spending were shaking their heads, and at least one senator was lamenting a budget omission he said would hit his state's economy hard.

In fact, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was down right incensed over the decision not to include a mere $50,000 for an Army Corps of Engineers study on deepening the Port of Charleston in his home state and vowed to "tie the Senate in knots" by holding up Obama administration nominations.

Read more »

Earmarks

Congress Shackles Itself, Slashes Earmarks to Nowhere

Susan Crabtree | April 12, 2011, 11:32AM

United States Capitol

Over the last few years in the hotly contested debate over Congress' ability to direct money to pet projects in their district, advocates of the practice, known as earmarking, have repeatedly argued that eliminating earmarks would only amount to a drop in the deficit bucket and have no real impact on overall spending.

The details of the deal to avert a government shutdown go a long way in undermining that point as the government is saving $10 billion by eliminating money usually set aside for earmark spending, including $630 million for so-called earmarks to nowhere, money for earmarks that has never been spent.

The latest measure that funds the government through the end of September even slashes $4.2 billion in Department of Defense earmarks, once a sacred cow of senior lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Read more »

Jeff Flake

GOPer Flake Takes The High Road On Possible Giffords Senate Run

Susan Crabtree | February 16, 2011, 3:30PM

Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ)

Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) who announced his Senate bid this week, is taking the high road when it comes to the possibility of a general election match-up against the rapidly and remarkably recovering Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ).

"The most wonderful thing in the world would be to have her make a Senate run," Flake told TPM in an interview Tuesday.

While Flake declined to discuss whether he could beat her in a head-to-head Senate race, he said a Giffords' Senate run in 2012 would be an incredible and welcome development.

Read more »

Earmarks

Senate Approprations Committee Gives Into Obama On Earmarks

Evan McMorris-Santoro | February 2, 2011, 8:55AM

Sen. Dan Inouye (D-HI)

Senate Appropriations chair Daniel Inouye (D-HI) says that the days of earmarking in spending bills are over, thanks to the Republican ban on the practice in the House and President Obama's unwillingness to support earmarks in the future.

In what could amount to be a big political victory for the White House, Inouye told his colleagues in the Senate Tuesday not to bother sending him their requests for earmarks. A notorious earmarker himself, Inouye said that there just wasn't any point in trying to continue earmarking after Obama so vehemently turned on the practice in his State of the Union address earlier this month.

Read more »

Earmarks

Reid Rejects Obama's Purported Anti-Earmark SOTU

Evan McMorris-Santoro | January 25, 2011, 4:15PM

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

President Obama is reportedly planning to join with Congressional Republicans and call in tonight's State Of The Union address for a ban on earmarking. In response, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate is saying the same thing he said when Republicans proposed an end to earmarking: Bad move.

At a press conference today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid summarily rejected the idea of a ban on the Congressional practice of tagging federal dollars for projects in members' home districts -- a staple of lawmaking in Washington that has become increasingly unpopular over the years.

"I don't think that's helpful. I think it's a lot of pretty talk and it's only giving the president more power," Reid said when asked about the earmark language set of the SOTU. "He's got enough power already."

There's not a lot new here -- Obama has been calling for an end to earmarking for quite a while now, and Reid said just last month that he'd publicly oppose any president who tried to curb the practice. But with the House Republican majority already operating with a ban and the Senate minority living with their own earmark restrictions, Obama's criticism of earmarking tonight will once again make Congressional Democrats the lone defenders of the practice in Washington.

Read more »

Earmarks

Oops! Republican Asks Scalia About Constitutionality Of Earmarks

Brian Beutler | January 25, 2011, 8:59AM

At a tea party in Washington, D.C. in 2009.

The latest in a recent string of Constitution gaffes might make Republicans think twice about their earmark moratorium.

On Monday, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) hosted a seminar for (mostly Republican) House members on the Constitution. Her special guest was Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who presided over what was reportedly a fairly dry, straightforward discussion of his legal doctrine, and answered a handful of other Constitutional questions.

At least one of these, it turned out, was embarrassingly rudimentary.

Read more »

Spending

How Mitch McConnell Convinced Republicans To Derail Dems' Spending Plan

Brian Beutler | December 17, 2010, 2:25PM

Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell approached the microphones for his weekly press conference on Tuesday with more sense of purpose than he's had since he tried -- but failed -- to derail the health care law in March. His goal this time was to kill the Omnibus spending bill, which his Democratic counterpart Harry Reid had just unveiled. Just as earlier this year, though, he didn't sound like a party leader who was certain he had the votes to kill it.

"I am actively working to defeat it," he said.

At that point, it looked like the package would sneak by with the help of a half-dozen or more Senate Republicans who don't have a religious aversion to earmarking. On Thursday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) released a statement describing it as "on a glide path to passage." But as the week dragged on, more and more of those members started inching away from the spending bill.

Read more »

Earmarks

Attention GOP Porkers: Hatch Had His Earmark Requests Stripped From Spending Bill

Brian Beutler | December 15, 2010, 3:45PM

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)

Republican Senators whose earmark requests pepper the much-maligned omnibus spending bill are having a really hard time explaining how they went from requesting earmarks earlier this year to decrying the legislation... because of all the earmarks. But never let it be said that those requests were baked into the spending package before the anti-pork wave hit in November.

After the Republican caucus voted to impose an earmark moratorium last month, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) -- who's likely to face a primary challenge from the right in 2012 -- asked Senate appropriators to strip his earmarks from the omnibus.

"I did," Hatch confirmed to me this afternoon after a Senate vote, "because I decided I voted for the moratorium, and I thought 'well, I need to do that.'"

He's having an easier day than a lot of Republican senators who are having to answer charges of hypocrisy.

Read more »

John Cornyn

Fox News Asks Cornyn: So Are You For Earmarking Or What? (VIDEO)

Eric Lach | December 15, 2010, 1:53PM

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) had to do a little rhetorical dance on Fox News this morning to explain why the new omnibus spending bill that he opposes includes millions of dollars worth of his own earmark requests.

Read more »

Appropriations

Republicans Make Good On Threat To Force Lame Duck Spending Showdown

Brian Beutler | December 15, 2010, 11:25AM

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell

Before the midterms, conservative leaders were warning that they'd force a showdown over federal spending much earlier than expected: in the lame duck session, before the newly elected Republicans come to Washington.

They weren't joking. Republican and Democratic leaders are now engaged in a brinksmanship that could result in a temporary shutdown of the federal government. After the election, Republicans voted among themselves to eschew all earmarks for two years, and now they have to make good on their pledge. Yesterday, Democrats' chief appropriator, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) unveiled what's known as an omnibus spending bill -- a bundled up package of appropriations legislation, earmarks, and other measures -- which would keep the government running for a year.

In response, most Republicans -- even those whose multimillion dollar earmark requests are included in the legislation -- are saying, "Hell no you can't!"

Read more »

Earmarks

Another Incoming GOP Chairman Was 'Porker Of The Month'

December 9, 2010, 3:32PM

Rep. John Mica (R-FL)

Yesterday we brought you the hilarious tale of the anti-pork GOP's new pork-loving appropriations committee chairman. He's since pledged to change his ways and adhere to the Republican's self-imposed earmark ban.

But another incoming GOP chairman also won an award for his penchant for earmarking. Meet Rep. John Mica (R-FL), who will soon chair the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure:

Read more »

Hal Rogers

New GOP Approps Chair Rogers Was 'Porker Of The Month' In August

Brian Beutler | December 8, 2010, 2:29PM

Representative Hal Rogers (R-KY)

Yesterday, House Republicans dealt the Tea Party and conservative advocacy groups a blow by electing Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) to chair the powerful Appropriations Committee next year.

Rogers is a famous earmarker, and a lot of critics see this as a harbinger that the GOP earmark ban might not be as ironclad as they'd like folks to believe. But just how much earmarking did Rogers really do? Enough to be named "Porker of the Month" by an anti-pork pressure group just four months ago.

Citizens Against Government Waste saddled Rogers with the award for "sponsoring legislation that could give federal funding to his daughter's nonprofit organization, which promotes overseas wildlife protection for cheetahs."

Read more »

Tea Party Caucus

House Tea Party Caucus Members Requested Over $1 Billion In Earmarks

Eric Kleefeld | December 2, 2010, 10:40AM

The Tea Party Caucus after its initial meeting on July 21

Hmm, something seems odd about the House Tea Party Caucus -- the group founded to promote cuts in government spending. As National Journal reports, a new study finds that the caucus' 52 members requested a total of more than $1 billion in this past Congress.

According to a Hotline review of records compiled by Citizens Against Government Waste, the 52 members of the caucus, which pledges to cut spending and reduce the size of government, requested a total of 764 earmarks valued at $1,049,783,150 during Fiscal Year 2010, the last year for which records are available.

"It's disturbing to see the Tea Party Caucus requested that much in earmarks. This is their time to put up or shut up, to be blunt," said David Williams, vice president for policy at Citizens Against Government Waste. "There's going to be a huge backlash if they continue to request earmarks."

Read more »

2012 elections

DeMint Targets Red-State Dem Senators In Fundraising Email

Eric Kleefeld | December 2, 2010, 9:42AM

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)

Sen. Jim DeMint is already hitting the virtual campaign trail for the 2012 Senate races, National Journal reports, with his Senate Conservatives Fund leadership PAC sending out a fundraising email targeting four red-state Democrats who voted against the earmark moratorium.

The targeted Senators are Jon Tester (D-MT), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Kent Conrad (D-ND) and the newly-elected Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who just won a special election and is up for a vote again in 2012. All four of them hail from states that were carried by John McCain in 2008.

"These senators are nice folks but they have ignored the will of the American people and they must be replaced with principled conservatives in 2012," DeMint says in the email. "That's where the Senate Conservatives Fund comes in and it's where you can help."

DeMint then adds that his PAC will need "at least $4 million" for these four targeted races.

Jon Kyl

Kyl Hounded For $200M 'Earmark' -- But Experts Say It Doesn't Break GOP Ban

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 24, 2010, 3:02PM

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ)

Democrats today are shopping around what they're saying is a really juicy (if totally predictable) tale of Republican hypocrisy: Just days after the Senate GOP caucus imposed a voluntary moratorium on earmarking, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) dumped $200 million in extra cash for his home state into a spending bill right before final passage.

But experts insisted to TPM today that what Kyl did isn't nearly as clear or egregious as the AP made it out to be.

Here's the AP story Democrats are so excited about:

Only three days after GOP senators and senators-elect renounced earmarks, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, the No. 2 Senate Republican, got himself a whopping $200 million to settle an Arizona Indian tribe's water rights claim against the government. Kyl slipped the measure into a larger bill sought by President Barack Obama and passed by the Senate on Friday to settle claims by black farmers and American Indians against the federal government.

Read more »

Mitch McConnell

Senate Republicans Pass Earmark Moratorium

Brian Beutler | November 16, 2010, 5:53PM

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

As expected, the Senate Republican conference passed an earmark moratorium resolution this afternoon. It's non-binding, but expresses the view of the full GOP caucus.

Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn and Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill are pressing to make the ban statutory. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid isn't wild about the idea, but he promised to work with both members to bring the issue up for a vote in the Senate.

The GOP conference also approved a balanced budget resolution authored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).

Read more »

Rand Paul

Rand Paul Tells TPM That Tea Party Is Shaping Earmark Debate (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | November 16, 2010, 5:09PM

Sen.-elect Rand Paul (R-KY)

Senator-elect Rand Paul (R-KY) was in D.C. on Tuesday, where TPM ran into him and asked for his impressions of the Senate so far. Paul said the Tea Party has already shown its influence through the push for Senate Republicans to ban earmarks.

"We're pretty excited about the fact that we think the Tea Party is shaping the debate," Paul said. "Already, the caucus looks like it is going to move forward to having a ban on earmarks, which is a step towards having a more frugal government."

Read more »

Earmarks

Much Ado About Earmarks: What Will The GOP's Ban Actually Do?

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 16, 2010, 12:50PM

Jim DeMint

Senate Republicans are expected to join their House colleagues in banning the time-honored practice of earmarking in a behind-closed-doors meeting later today. Much has been made in recent days of the proposed moratorium on porking up a Congressional spending bill with federally-funded goodies for your home state or district (or seeing to it that your constituents get their fair piece of the government money pie, depending on your point of view). The president wants earmarks gone. The tea party -- led by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) -- wants earmarks gone. And now, the Republicans want them gone, too.

But what will the GOP's proposed ban actually do?

Read more »

Earmarks

Anti-Earmark Bachmann Open To Earmark 'Redefinition' For Her District

Eric Lach | November 16, 2010, 11:38AM

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) hates earmarks. Despises them. On her website, she calls the earmark system "little more than a political favor factory at taxpayer expense." But when it comes to her own district, she's in favor of a little earmark "redefinition." Because what is an earmark, after all?

Read more »

Earmarks

Obama Hails McConnell's Decision To Back Earmark Moratorium

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 15, 2010, 5:48PM

President Obama

Who said bipartisanship was hard? President Obama and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have already found something to agree on in the next Congress, weeks before it convenes for the first time. In a statement released by the White House afternoon, Obama praised McConnell's decision to cave to tea party demands and back an earmark ban in the Republican Senate caucus next year.

"I welcome Senator McConnell's decision to join me and members of both parties who support cracking down on wasteful earmark spending, which we can't afford during these tough economic times," Obama said.

The president has been trying to tamp down the use of earmarks for awhile now, and he used the occasion of the Republican Senate leader and noted earmarker McConnell's change of heart on the topic to call on members of his own party to give up earmarking, too.

"In the days and weeks to come, I look forward to working with Democrats and Republicans to not only end earmark spending, but to find other ways to bring down our deficits for our children," Obama said.

Read more »

Earmarks

McConnell Caves On Earmarks, Pledges To Vote For Moratorium

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 15, 2010, 2:36PM

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Chalk up one win for the tea party movement over the establishment. In a speech on the Senate floor just now, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he'll be voting for the Republican moratorium on earmarks pushed by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and many incoming tea party freshmen.

"Nearly every day that the Senate's been in session for the past two years, I've come down to this very spot, and said that Democrats were ignoring the wishes of the American people," McConnell said. "When it comes to earmarks, I won't be guilty of the same thing."

Read more »

Earmarks

DeMint Says He's Got The Votes To Ban Earmarks In The Senate GOP

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 15, 2010, 2:07PM

Jim DeMint

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), the defacto leader of the tea party-fueled movement to ban earmarking by Republican Senators in the next Congress, says he's got the votes to pass a moratorium when the incoming caucus meets for the first time tomorrow.

"We probably have the edge by a vote or two," DeMint told reporters on a conference call sponsored by the Heritage Foundation this morning. He credited the incoming freshman class -- which includes vehement anti-earmarkers like Mike Lee (UT) and Rand Paul (KY) -- with providing the extra votes needed to pass a moratorium over the wishes of caucus leader Mitch McConnell.

Read more »

Barack Obama

Inhofe: Obama Doesn't Know Where Oklahoma Is (VIDEO)

Eric Lach | November 12, 2010, 5:11PM

Talking today with Fox News' Neil Cavuto about his opposition to the anti-earmark position of Tea Partiers and some of his fellow Republican Senators, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) made the argument that he has to look out for his state, because the President doesn't even know where Oklahoma is.

Read more »

Earmarks

Earmark Fight In Senate Pits Tea Partiers Against Establishment GOP

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 12, 2010, 8:50AM

Jim DeMint

Total opposition to earmarking is a key tea party tenet, and the battle to get Republicans to voluntarily ban it in their ranks is already raging. Establishment leaders like Minority Leader Mitch McConnell -- who favor earmarking for its time-honored electoral implications -- are clashing with pro-ban Senators led by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), the body's tea party hero.

Lining up behind DeMint in the push to end earmarks are Sens. Jim Coburn (R-OK), John Cornyn (R-TX), John Ensign (R-NV) and Mike Enzi (R-WY) -- along with Senators-elect Pat Toomey (R-PA), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Ron Johnson (R-WI).

McConnell has reportedly been fighting behind the scenes to squash the proposed ban, and Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) -- one of the Senate's most conservative members -- is publicly blasting his anti-earmark colleagues for hypocrisy.

Who wins the scrum could have broad implications in 2012.

Read more »

Rand Paul

Rand Paul: I Am Not An Earmarker! (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 9, 2010, 6:09PM

Kentucky's incoming Senator is pushing back hard on critics who claim he has sold out when it comes to earmarks. Republican Rand Paul told CNN's Wolf Blitzer today that concerns that he backed away from his pledge to refuse federally-funded pet projects, a key tenet of his tea party-fueled campaign, just aren't warranted.

"I won't use earmarks as a senator," Paul told Blitzer. As he had on the campaign trail, Paul said earmarking "shows some of the abuse of Washington" and promised he won't be among the Senators who participate in the process. But that doesn't mean he won't try to get money for Kentucky through the open appropriations process.

Conservatives got upset at Paul after a Wall Street Journal article from the weekend reported Paul had offered a "shift" on "his campaign pledge to end earmarks." That led National Review to worry Paul was "selling out already."

On CNN, Paul dismissed the article. In a flashback to the campaign trail -- when Paul's early national media appearances haunted him for months -- the Sen.-elect said the Journal had misquoted him and demanded a correction.

Read more »

Rand Paul

Conservative Mag Worries Rand Paul Is 'Already Selling Out' On Earmarks

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 9, 2010, 10:29AM

Rand Paul, Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Kentucky

Sen.-elect Rand Paul (R-KY) is making some of his supporters nervous, after an interview with the Wall Street Journal this weekend where Paul appeared to walk back his bright-line opposition to earmarking, a centerpiece of his tea party campaign for Senate.

"Is he selling out already?" National Review's Veronique de Rugy asked yesterday.

Read more »

Barack Obama

McConnell Praises Tea Party, Opposes Their Goal Of Earmark Elimination

Brian Beutler | November 4, 2010, 3:04PM

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

In a speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation this morning, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had kind words for Tea Party activists, who energized the GOP base but whose candidates likely cost Republicans control of the Senate. At the same time, though, he threw cold water on one of the movement's top goals -- an elimination of earmarks -- by noting that without Congressional input, President Obama will get to make most decisions on how federal money gets spent.

"Tea Party activists will continue to energize our party and challenge us to follow through on our commitments," McConnell said.

The Tea Party's top ally in the Senate is Jim DeMint (R-SC), who's also McConnell's main rival within the GOP caucus. DeMint plans to put the Republican conference on the spot about an earmark moratorium as soon as Congress returns. DeMint told the National Journal, "The first test vote will probably be as soon as we get back later in November: Will Republicans vote to ban earmarks ... to help a moratorium on earmarks? Because that's the rule change I'm going to bring forward and I think we'll see right away in the House and in the Senate whether or not Republicans are serious about what they ran on."

And yesterday, President Obama said he'd be happy to work with Republicans on such an initiative: "That's something I think we can -- we can work on together."

But McConnell says no way.

Read more »

Earmarks

Amid Anti-Earmark Crusade, Republicans Put Freshmen On Appropriations Committee

Brian Beutler | October 13, 2010, 2:53PM

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) with members of the GOP leadership

According to Politico, "Two Republican House candidates in the last day have announced that House Minority Leader John Boehner has promised them valuable committee assignments." If that indicates a trend, it could complicate GOP efforts to appease conservative voters' demands for an end to earmarks.

At least one of the two, Rep. Charles Djou (R-HI), will be serving in a competitive district. He was promised a seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee.

Read more »

Tea Party

Tea Party Leader Slams Cantor For Taking Government Shutdown Off The Table

Brian Beutler | October 8, 2010, 11:23AM

Eric Cantor speaks at a rally opposing the health care plan.

Republican leaders may be growing squeamish about a showdown with the White House over the health care law next Congress. But if you think the conservative base is just going to sit back and give them a pass, you're sorely mistaken.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal earlier this week, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor was more explicit than any Republican leader has been thus far that the GOP will not force a federal government shutdown, if push comes to shove in their fight to defund health care reform.

"No," Cantor said. "I don't think the country needs or wants a shutdown." Broadly speaking, Cantor cautioned, Republicans will have to take a humble approach. Republicans, he said, "have to be careful about how we do it. We don't want to be seen as a bunch of yahoos."

That's completely unacceptable according to one Tea Party leader.

Read more »

John Boehner

Say What?! Republicans Echo Bill Clinton's Rhetoric In Anti-Pork Crusade

Brian Beutler | October 1, 2010, 4:21PM

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), and Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

How untenable is the idea of eliminating earmarks? So untenable that Republicans are now borrowing from Bill Clinton to walk back what was recently one of their top initiatives.

"I am proud to stand with Leader Boehner in calling for an end to earmarking as we know it," Tweeted House GOP conference chair Mike Pence today. The sentiment was echoed -- retweeted, as the kids like to call it -- by Boehner himself, and Pence put out a statement today calling for "Congress to make the hard choices that are necessary to break Washington's spending addiction, and ending earmarks as we know them is a step in the right direction."

Read more »

Earmarks

Three Congressmen Defy GOP Earmark Ban, Face Losing Committee Seats

Rachel Slajda | April 1, 2010, 12:37PM

Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA) and Rep. Don Young (R-AK)

Three Republican congressmen have defied their party's decision to ban all earmarks for one year, a move that could cost them their committee posts.

According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Reps. Anh "Joseph" Cao of Louisiana and Ron Paul of Texas have joined Rep. Don Young (AK) in requesting earmarks for the 2011 fiscal year, despite a House Republican caucus vote this month to institute a moratorium on earmarks for one year.

Read more »

Earmarks

Ethics Groups Say Congress Should Go Further Than Proposed Earmark Ban

Christina Bellantoni | March 11, 2010, 6:17PM

Citizens Against Government Waste bring pigs and pig costumes to Washington D.C. to protest pork-barrel spending.

Government watchdog groups who draw a link between corruption and the special project budget requests known as earmarks say Congress "must do more." House Democrats announced yesterday a ban on directing budget funds to for-profit companies. House Republicans followed up with a decision they wouldn't request any earmarks at all, for one year.

The Democratic proposal would strike about $1.7 billion in requests, the House Appropriations committee estimates. The move has potentially large budget implications but hasn't been met with a partner promise in the Senate.

"It's a positive step forward in both cases. Those earmarks are ground zero for pay to play, and is clearly one of the major areas people are trying to turn thousands of dollars in campaign contributions into millions of dollars in taxpayer money in the form of earmarks," Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense said in an interview today.

Read more »

Richard Shelby

Richard Shelby Drops Blanket Holds, Says They Were A Success

Evan McMorris-Santoro | February 9, 2010, 9:42AM

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL)

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) has dropped all but a handful of the 70-plus holds he placed on President Obama's nominees last week. Shelby's office told TPMDC today that the goal of the blanket holds had succeeded three days after it was reported and roundly attacked by Democrats and the White House.

"The purpose of placing numerous holds was to get the White House's attention was to get the White House's attention on two issues that are critical to our national security," Shelby spokesperson Jonathan Graffeo said in a statement, referring to two programs that would sent billions in taxpayer funds to Alabama. Shelby will continue his hold on several Air Force and Pentagon nominees.

Read more »