Community | March 12, 2010 | 35 comments

Congressional Ban on Earmarks Sends Lobbyists Scrambling

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/us/politics/12lobby.html?hp

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Jolted by a sudden tightening of the rules, lobbyists and military contractors who have long relied on lucrative earmarks from Congress were scrambling to find new ways to keep the federal money flowing.

House Republicans, seeking to outdo the Democrats in ethics reform, went even further Thursday by agreeing to swear off all earmarks, for both nonprofit and commercial organizations, for the next year.

“This is the best day we’ve had in a while,” said Representative Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican who has been a fierce opponent of earmarks — no-bid contracts directed by lawmakers — but had found little support among Republican colleagues before this week.

“In terms of us getting this moratorium, the stars were aligned. What the Democrats did certainly motivated the Republicans.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/us/politics/12lobby.html?hp
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35 comments // Congressional Ban on Earmarks Sends Lobbyists Scrambling

  • courage
    • 0
      courage  

    • wow must be a election year Funny the dems first target was any one that runs a FOR PROFIT company what a stunner

    • 1 year ago
  • hammywill
  • Toughth
    • 0
      Toughth  

    • When our founding fathers wrote the constitution I think they thought that the laws of the land would allways be made to be understood and sraight forward for the people to understand. The original government in the Roman era was Res Publicus, meaning for the people. They placed the laws in the forum for all to read and understand in as simple and sraightfoward a way as possible. It is time to go back to this principle. Laws and spending should allways be open for the people to understand. Special intrests should allways take a back seat to the will of the nation as a whole.

    • 1 year ago
  • Gordie_Caie
    • -1
      Gordie_Caie  

    • Earmarks are a way for our government to give the people back some of our taxes we pay...By banning ear marks, we have allowed the FED Reserve, and Treasury to flow money through Stimulus bullshit and TARP and other bogus spending IN SECRET AND TO THEIR CRONY FRIENDS!... Now every President elected is talking about stimulus and other bailouts,(Bush gave a $300.00 check to everyone when he took office in 2000.) This way of spending can be buried and kept secret. Earmarks could not be kept secret.. Earmarks were called out and could be seen by anyone who chose to look at them....

      AGAIN Washington moves money so the public cant see where it goes...
      They need to ban the lobbyists not the earmarks them selves..
      The people just lost a way to recoup some of their tax dollars and Washington has figured out a way to cut that spending and move those dollars somewhere
      else where the people cant see.

      "One should never trust government, one should not even be asked to do so!"
      Ron Paul

    • 1 year ago
  • Toughth
    • 0
      Toughth  
    • Gordie_Caie:

      Earmarks are a way to reward those that suport the various political groups into power. Like the faith base initiative when Bush first was placed into office. Did not see much of that reach the people did we.

    • 1 year ago
  • Elligirl
  • derk
    • +2
      derk  

    • Let me get this straight: the Democrats attempt to slow down defense spending and the Republicans retaliate by attacking children, the poor and the sick.

      So, I guess now they are even ...

    • 1 year ago
  • oppressed1
    • +1
      oppressed1  

    • lol. Smoke and Mirrors. Everyone check their wallets because when something seems good in washington it usually means get ready to be fucked.

    • 1 year ago
  • Gordie_Caie
  • wheresGore
  • tommic
    • +1
      tommic  

    • Sarcasim, disparaging remarks, WTF they actually did something in Washington D.C. Anything that upsets lobbyists is a really good thing.
      Lobbyists are the leaches of the Capitalist system, they suck out everything they can without exploding.
      Go to white house.gov and to your representitives and senators website and let them know We the people want to have legislation introduced to end the lobbying of government officials of any kind, in any way at the expense of mandatory jail sentence. Thats what this country needs.

    • 1 year ago
  • s_peak
  • fun_size
  • Atalanda_Cameron
  • Amber_Taylor
  • oppressed1
  • KSirys
  • AmericanStandard
    • +1
      AmericanStandard  

    • I love how getting rid of ear marks for a year is hailed as some huge accomplishment. We shouldn't have Ear marks in the first place so why the celebration when they place a moratorium on them for a year?!?!

    • 1 year ago
  • obamaisajoke
  • Ajil
  • TerminallyJaded
  • serenden68
    • +1
      serenden68  
    • obamaisajoke:

      i want to explain global warming to you but i dont think you have the mental capacity to gather the information. so i say it in "lame ass" terms.

      ok first of all ITS FUCKING WINTER!!!!! it will always be cold in WINTER. shit even spring has its cold days no matter where you are on the planet.

      global warming doesn't just happen in America( which last summer and fall had multiple record breaking hot days), but its all over the world with polar ice caps melting. Greenland and Iceland are melting also due to global warming.

      global warming means there will be extremes on both side of the temp scale all over.

    • 1 year ago
  • KSirys
  • NothingIsAbsoluteTruth
  • CalgarC
  • neocongo
    • +7
      neocongo  

    • This is an excellent idea, which once again, conservative paranoia is trying to pervert. If earmarks are eliminated from the public sector, it will force spending to be written directly into legislation from the start, rather than tacked on at the last minute as a bargaining chip for a vote. Large companies that use non profit status to obtain funding will be obvious, and there will be time for examination and debate on such expenditures.

      To eliminate earmarks for non profit agencies is stupid. Legitimate non profit organizations have neither the lobbying power, nor the ability to make massive campaign contributions. The non profits who do have some lobbying and contribution power are still organizations that represent people, and not corporations, like the NRA and unions. Even the campaign contribution power of the biggest non profits is a drop in the bucket compared to industry.

    • 1 year ago
  • HowdyDo
    • 0
      HowdyDo  
    • neocongo:

      I think it's OK that non-profits and for-profits have to go through the same process - non-profits can still benefit, but they will have to have their contracts included in the legislation from the start, just like for-profits - non-profit contracts shouldn't be allowed to be "tacked on at the last minute as a bargaining chip for a vote" any more than a for-profit contract should.

    • 1 year ago
  • tommic
  • tommytripper
    • 0
      tommytripper  

    • ummm every dime they spend should be earmarked... its the only way to check exactly what these asshats in washington are spending money on...

      the point of an earmark is to state what money is to be spent on... not this commonly held idea that they are some how evil... its a way to make those jackasses accountable...

    • 1 year ago
  • Incredulous
    • 0
      Incredulous  
    • tommytripper:

      not to mention that they have countless other ways of hiding what they are really doing with our tax dollars. Now, the day they decide that the public has to to be notified and okay every contract and purchase made by the DOD...that might produce some accountability.

    • 1 year ago
  • EdJoyProductions
  • Progresshiv
  • hammywill
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