A Failure of Leadership
June 23, 2010
by: Tom Schatz

Wastewatcher, June, 2010

When House Republicans in March touted their unilateral decision to forgo requesting earmarks for fiscal year 2011, many believed that the party had taken a step toward restoring its reputation for fiscal responsibility.   House Republican Conference Secretary John Carter (R-Texas) called it “a historic milestone in moving towards eliminating the pork-barrel spending that is destroying our children’s economic future.”  He said it would “give the American people a clear-cut choice in November to shut down the insane levels of federal deficit spending of this Congress and Administration.”

However, when they were given a chance to prove they really had changed, 116 Republicans, a majority of the Republican Conference, voted on May 27 against an amendment to cut a $485 million earmark for the alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter from the fiscal year 2011 Department of Defense Authorization Act.  The final vote was 193-231.  The vote was not about the merits of the program; an earmark is an earmark, and the question was whether a sufficient number of Republicans would vote to kill it.  No wonder taxpayers are fed up with both parties.

Those voting against the amendment included the entire Republican leadership:  Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Deputy Whip Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) Republican Policy Committee Chairman Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.), and Rep. Carter, who expressed such outrage over earmarks just two months ago.  The Republican Study Committee, which calls itself “The Caucus of House Conservatives,” did not live up to its name as the current chairman, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), and a past chairmen, Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), voted against the amendment.  They were joined by the heroine of the Tea Party movement, Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.).

The vote on the amendment is part of an unfortunate pattern for House Republicans.  A review of 67 earmark-related votes in the House in 2009 in preparation for the mid-June release of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste’s annual Congressional Vote Ratings reveals that there were 56 non-defense-related amendments and 11 defense-related amendments (there was no vote on the alternate engine last year).  A majority of Republicans voted in favor of 48 out of 56, or 86 percent of the non-defense-related amendments.  However, only two of 11, or 18 percent, of the defense-related amendments were supported by a majority of Republicans. 

The average vote in favor of the non-defense amendments was 117; the average vote against the defense-related amendments was 104.  With 116 Republicans voting against the amendment to strike funds for the alternate engine, the trend is getting worse, not better. 

The message to the taxpayers is that a majority of House Republicans believe that some earmarks (defense) are better than others (non-defense); and that there is waste in the government, except at the Pentagon.  That conclusion is not shared by the tens of millions of taxpayers that want an end to all earmarks and cut waste everywhere.

Even more embarrassing for House Republicans is that their Senate counterparts last year voted overwhelmingly to cut funds for the alternate engine.  Within the vote of 59-38 to strike an earmark for the engine in the Senate version of the fiscal year 2010 Defense Authorization Act, 26 Republicans voted in favor, and 14 voted against, a margin of almost 2-1.  It was the reverse in the House, as Republicans voted by more than a 2-1 margin to keep the alternate engine running, with 116 in favor, and 57 against.

Senate Republicans have no earmark moratorium, yet a majority voted to eliminate the alternate engine.  House Republicans have an earmark moratorium, yet a majority voted to retain the program.  

Republicans still have a lot of work to do to establish a “clear-cut choice” for Americans in November.