Tiahrt bucking colleagues by backing earmark reform

Good for Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, for bucking his fellow House Appropriations Committee members and supporting legislation to reform earmarks. The bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., would require that earmarks — federal funding designated for home state projects — be included in the actual text of spending bills, rather than the committee or conference reports that accompany bills. “For an appropriator to support a meaningful earmark reform bill shows just how out of control the process has gotten,” Flake said. Earmarks account for less than 1 percent of federal spending, so reducing them won’t solve our nation’s budget problems. But as Chuck Knapp, Tiahrt’s communications director, said, the reform is “really about putting more accountability and transparency in the process.” It needs it.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

9 Comments

  1. writerdog
    Posted February 19, 2006 at 5:28 am | Permalink

    Gee guys where is the fluff piece on Roberts? Tiahrt well that is a no brainer. As simple logic as “Oh the horse got out, I should lock the barn door!”.

    Brownback, is all for human rights!He love kittens too.

    Where is Roberts piece? He could use some “nicing” up too! All three of them have crapped in their nets here in Kansas with their support of agendas that are not in the best interests of the United states or Kansas.

    I know! Roberts mother got a card on mother’s day she really liked and a call too.

    I know, it is coming up on an election and the Republicans are looking bad because Bush calls himself a Republican so we need to sweeten up the image so by the time people hit the polls they will not remember everything that they were offended by in the the last four years and so they needs to be a little smoke and mirrors put in front of the people because it is felt that we are easily destracted by shiny objects which maybe true as it has worked so well in the past time!

    And yes I am pizzed and it is because it has worked and will more than likely work this time too.

  2. kelly
    Posted February 19, 2006 at 12:57 pm | Permalink

    You mean Rep. Tiahrt did something that might actually be worthwhile for the common good of us all? I remember a couple of weeks ago he was making thousands of phone calls and spending untold hours trying to be elected by his Republican peers to a low level leadership position, when he could instead have been helping unravel the Medicare prescription drug nightmare, or investigating seriously the fraud and waste going on in the Iraq rebuilding money pit, or keeping federal funds intact for college tuition assistance, or . . . the list is endless. He is worthless as a meaningful representative of the people of the 4th district.

  3. Ben Huie
    Posted February 19, 2006 at 1:01 pm | Permalink

    Tiahrt may as well come out against earmarks. After all, he failed miserably at getting his big plum for his former employer, the tanker project.

  4. Brandon
    Posted February 19, 2006 at 1:13 pm | Permalink

    Apparently it is just to painful to acknowledge when a conservative politician takes a position that everyone knows is coorect and laudable. Sad.

  5. ksfarmgrrl
    Posted February 19, 2006 at 1:21 pm | Permalink

    You go writerdog!

  6. Ben Huie
    Posted February 19, 2006 at 2:35 pm | Permalink

    Brandon – note my sakute to Brownback (and Dole) on another thread. No, that did not pain me at all; I happily supported them when they do something that is correct and laudable.

  7. MOTHER
    Posted February 19, 2006 at 2:43 pm | Permalink

    Writerdog,”And yes I am pizzed and it is because it has worked and will more than likely work this time too.”Hon, don’t give up the spirit; spread it. If we don’t, what you are saying will come to be, and we don’t need that again. We will be hard pressed to pull down the neo-con machine marching through Kansas, but we have to be more intelligent than we have been to do it. If we can show the average joe and judy that they are being hit in the pocketbook by these schmucks, we got a chance. These people now money, they don’t care about anything else. Everything else is a side issue.

  8. Brandon
    Posted February 19, 2006 at 5:50 pm | Permalink

    I do have to admit that reform and politicians are seldom words that can be said in the same sentence with a straight face. The latest games on lobbying reform are particularly amusing, with McCain calling Obama on trickery with a certain amount of style:

    http://theflyoverzone.blogspot.com/2006/02/mccain-bombs-obama.html

    Gotta love it.

  9. writerdog
    Posted February 20, 2006 at 2:53 am | Permalink

    Mother it is fortunated that I think the Neo-cons are coming apart.

    The movement itself was made up of different concepts and those that called themselves Neo-cons that were for the spending side are seeing that they were used by the power side. I have a brother-inlaw whom said he was a Neo-con because he thought they had the right idea on Government spending. Lately he said that Bush&Co. are big spenders and nothing to show for it. He now sides with me (we are the only two Republicans in the family) that Bush is using the Presidency for his own designs to control and bring in a dictatorship.