The incoming House speaker, Ohio Republican Rep. John Boehner, has long opposed lawmakers’ tendency to include earmarks for parochial projects in annual spending bills, and wants to end the practice. South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, the party purist who helped elect a handful of conservative tea party-backed candidates Tuesday, has vowed to offer an earmark moratorium during the next Senate Republican Conference meeting on Nov. 16.Dear Mr. McConnell
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On Thursday, McConnell, who has secured $113 million in earmarks this past year, declined to say whether he’d support DeMint’s moratorium.
I'm not going to give you a title, because I'm a republican (small "r", and this isn't a monarchy, Senator is your job, not a lifelong title). You have no idea how close you are to losing the support that the GOP has gained. Your party didn't win control of the House of Representatives because America now loves the GOP more than the Democrats...it's because the GOP sucks just a little bit less. If you don't support Jim DeMint on this you will single-handedly squander the chance to gain control of the US Senate in 2012 and begin the real work of rolling back the mess that Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama and Harry Reid have made in the past 2-4 years.
Not only that, but you will show, by continuing the corrupt practices that have nearly bankrupted this country that the GOP isn't serious about fiscal conservatism. The GOP has, literally, a once in a generation chance to roll back both the size of government but how intrusive that government is. You will blow this by not being serious on being fiscally responsible. Certainly earmarks, when considered against the size of currents budgets, are rather small percentage of that budget...but it's not your money you are spending on your pet projects. It's my money, it's my neighbor's money, the the guy's down the street.
Statments like this:
“As I think all of you know, you can eliminate every congressional earmark and save no money,” the Republican leader said. “It’s really an argument about discretion.”are why I question just how serious you are. You sir, may very well be part of the problem in Washington and not part of the solution. Think about that. America repudiated the policies of the Democratic Party on Tuesday. If you continue with "business as usual" or "going along to get along" you will show that your party isn't sincere about BEING fiscally conservative. America doesn't really trust the GOP, your party just "sucks a little less" than the other one.
If you don't support this measure, you will prove that America's trust was misplaced. If that is in fact the case, the GOP will be swept away in a tidal wave that makes this past election look...like a small ripple in puddle.
Rich Vail
Pikesville, MD
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