Makes My Blood Boil

I think I remember something about the Democrats promising to end the "culture of corruption." And the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was going to lead the most ethical congress in history. And that President Obama was going to eliminate earmarks from his budgeting process. Oh well...more broken promises.

Earmark Requests Continue Despite Promises to Curb Process

Despite cries for reform, the earmark process is alive and well in Congress.

As lawmakers write the military budget for fiscal-year 2010, every member on the House defense-appropriations subcommittee has requested funds for contractors and other organizations with employees who have donated money to their campaigns.

The 18 members of the subcommittee are seeking a total of about $2 billion on behalf of such companies, universities and nonprofit groups, according to a review of campaign-finance data and nearly 400 earmark requests in the 2010 defense-spending bill by the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Employees of those entities donated nearly $1 million to the 11 Democrats and seven Republicans since the beginning of 2007.

The defense-spending bill for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, which will likely total more than $500 billion, is slated for a final vote in the panel Thursday.

The requests come as the Democratic-led Congress has vowed to curb the earmark process, where members write into the budget a requirement that funds be spent in a specific way, rather than leaving those decisions to the discretion of government officials or competitive bidding. Scandals over earmarks for big donors paved the way for Republicans to lose control of Congress in 2006.