Pork is back on the table in Congress and it’s being served red – thanks to 23 Republican freshman.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) just green-lit $368.6 million in earmarks proposed by 23 Republican congressional freshman. The Speaker graciously included these earmarks in the Democratic infrastructure bill that passed out of committee (June 10th).
Last March, Republicans blasted Pelosi when she first propositioned them with earmarks – the practice of including member pet projects in legislation to secure votes. Many of these critics echoed the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn, who called earmarks “the currency of corruption in Congress.”
But, within weeks, House Republicans took a secret vote and 102 endorsed Pelosi’s “member-directed spending” (the new euphemism for earmarks). Banned since 2011, earmarks were toxic in Congress and led to infamously wasteful projects like the “bridge to nowhere.”
Last November, Republican freshmen talked a big game on the campaign trail, but it took Pelosi less than four months to convert 23 newly elected members from outsiders into bona fide Washington insiders.
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