Right On The Right

I just got finished with a conference call with House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH). Several other members of The SOB Alliance were in on the call with me, and we discussed a lot of things, primarily earmarks. Pork barrel spending is getting ridiculous, and Congressman Boehner wants to bring transparency back into the process. Some background, via FOX News:

WASHINGTON — Minority Leader John Boehner threatened Democratic leaders Tuesday, vowing to slow down legislative activities in the House until Democrats agree to open up earmarking policy so that lawmakers disclose their pet projects earlier in the bill-making process.

"Republicans today are going to declare war on our Democratic majority over these secret slush funds," Boehner told reporters on Capitol Hill.

Republicans are hoping to hold Democrats to an earlier promise to make earmark requests more transparent by revealing where earmarks are designated and which lawmaker is requesting them before spending bills reach the House floor. Democrats want to release that information during the conference committee process, well after the House votes for appropriations.

Boehner, R-Ohio, said he is upset over the change of heart, and Democrats need to "realize the errors of their ways."

What secret slush fund is he talking about? Democrats have essentially gutted all of the earmark reforms passed by the Republican Congress in 2006, and Congressman Obey (D-WI) has a system set up where earmarks could be hidden, in a secret slush fund. Congressman Boehner's site describes it as follows:

Earmark-Laden Bills Can Now Be Certified as “Earmark-Free.” The Democrats also gutted the Republican earmark reforms by allowing bills to be certified by the majority as “earmark-free” even if they contain earmarks. If a bill comes to the floor with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of earmarks, yet is certified by Chairman Obey as “earmark-free,” it is considered earmark-free under House rules, and there’s nothing any other Member can do about it. House Democrats exploited this loophole to pass a massive spending bill (“continuing resolution”) in February 2007 that contained hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding for hidden earmarks.

Congressman Boehner made it clear that we need "a more limited, more accountable government in Washington." He also, when asked about the differences between the Republican Congress of 2002-2006 and the current Democrat Congress, said that "We believe that the government is too big and spends too much. That's what defines us as a party better than anything else."

Representative Roy Blunt also wrote a piece on the secret slush fund in Human Events. Expect to see Republicans hammering this issue over the next few days, because, as Representative Boehner said in the call about reforming earmarks- "We've got to create enough heat to allow the vote to occur."