Word: pork
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...move the GOP's agenda effectively, which is the campaign pitch of Blunt. Both Boehner and Shadegg have jointly suggested Blunt should step down from his job as Majority Whip and allow a separate election for the number three leadership post. And while each has sharply attacked earmarks as pork barrel projects that should be limited, Blunt has defended the value of the controversial spending provisions, which are used to fund specific projects in a congressman's district...
...aversion to big government programs, his aides insist. There are also short-term political points at stake. The Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal makes this an ideal time to go after what are known as earmarks--that is, spending placed in legislation, often without public review, for specific projects. That pork is a mainstay of the lobbying industry. And there is little money to spend anyway, so Bush might as well retool himself as a fearless budget cop. "Listen, we got a lot of people in Washington who preach fiscal discipline, and then they go on to vote against spending restraint...
...earmarks. The once rare but now common practice of earmarking specific amounts of money for individual pork projects in hard-to-stop conference reports has given rise to a new class of lobbyist that specializes in the no-fingerprints line items. John Boehner, the Ohioan who wants to be House majority leader, backs this change, but so far it faces long odds. Chance of passage...
However inviting that pork may be as a rhetorical target, though, earmarks give House members a chance to direct money to particular interests, and it's unlikely that they will want to give up that power. So in the warrens of the Capitol, Republicans debate how they can project change while keeping things much the same. The big totals on future spreadsheets depend...
...term domestic agenda--Social Security reform--died a pitiless, lingering death in 2005, as the public simply refused to buy it. His gleeful opening of the fiscal spigot--the biggest increase in public spending since F.D.R.--got deficit hawks squawking enough to force the first tiny potential cuts in pork, if nowhere near enough to control the looming debt. The Republican congressional guru, Tom DeLay, discovered that gerrymandering districts in Texas could lead to a Supreme Court challenge and that money-laundering campaign cash could lead to an indictment. Karl Rove lost some sleep over Patrick Fitzgerald. The President...