A Sad Excuse for Reform

Jim Lynch July 30th, 2007 7:17 pm

Protect The PorkRemember the early days of microwave ovens? Everyone was excited about having one, but they didn’t really know how to use them. You probably know someone who tried to cook a baked potatoe (heh) in one when they first arrived in our homes. After cooking the spud too long they would cut into it and discover there was nothing inside. (I promise, this is going somewhere).

In the 2006 mid-terms the left ran on a platform with two key pillars; Cut and Run (which seems to have done a 180 this weekend) and Reform.

It appears that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have nuked the tater too long.

Some of my Senate sources have gotten a copy of the 107 page “ethics and earmark reform” bill crafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

What they are finding in it confirms what I’ve suspected for months – Reid and Pelosi are for the most gutting concrete earmark and ethics reform while preserving just enough of the appearance of reform to be able to claim to have fulfilled their 2006 campaign promises.

Put another way – it’s all a charade.

[...]

Sen. Tom Coburn’s staff has gone through the Reid/Pelosi text and compared it to the previously approved earmark reform bill adopted unanimously by the Senate in January. They put the results of their examination in a handy chart:

Provisions Senate-Passed Bill Brand New Bill
Prohibits Senators from trading earmarks for votes Yes No
Prohibits Senators and staff from promoting earmarks from which they or their families would receive a direct financial benefit Yes No
Allows the Senate parliamentarian, not the Majority Leader, to determine if a bill complies with earmark disclosure rules Yes No
Prohibits consideration of bills, joint resolutions, or conference reports if earmarks are not disclosed Yes No
Requires earmarks attached to a conference report to be publicly available on the Internet in a searchable format 48 hours before consideration Yes No
Requires 67 votes to suspend the earmark disclosure rule Yes No
Requires a full day’s notice prior to attempting to suspend the earmark disclosure rule Yes No
Requires all earmark certifications from Senators to be posted on the Internet within 48 hours Yes No

NZ Bear has the pdf file of the empty husk of a bill at Porkbusters.

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