Republicans Bring House to a Standstill to Protest Democrat Earmarks

As I first reported here, the Democrats are hiding their earmarks in bills until it is too late for Republicans to vote against them. This hardly seems like a party who is keeping their campaign promise to reign in excessive earmark spending. It seems as though now they are in power the temptation is too great.

Now the Republicans are trying to turn the table on them and force them to slow down the earmark spending.

For the second straight day, minority House Republicans ground the House to a standstill Wednesday as they drove home their objections to a Democratic plan to deny a floor vote on lawmakers’ thousands of pet projects.

Public anger over the surging number of special member projects called earmarks — derided as pork barrel spending — was a factor in the Republicans’ loss of House control last November, GOP members concede, and now they say they’ve gotten religion on the need for openness in government.

Charges of hypocrisy flew in floor speeches as House leaders huddled behind closed doors to seek a way out of a dispute that Republicans said showed Democrats led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi had backed down on promises of openness and disclosure made when they took power last January.

Democrats had hoped this week to pass four of the 12 annual bills that pay for federal operations beginning Oct. 1. Instead, Republicans have offered 116 amendments to a $37.4 billion Homeland Security spending bill — the first of the bills on the floor — in a bid to stall it. And on Tuesday they offered repeated motions to adjourn the House, each requiring a vote, keeping a wary House in session until 2:10 a.m. Wednesday.

This, of course has angered Democrats who feel that their earmarks are justified.Isn’t it funny now that the tables are turned how Democrats find pork acceptable.

Democrats argued Republicans were engaging in partisan attacks to try to embarrass Pelosi.

Nancy Pelosi doesn’t need the help of Republicans to be embarrassed, she does it to herself on an almost daily basis.

You can read the whole article here.