Farm Bill only highlights Dem's Pork Barrel spending

The Democrats seized control of Congress in the 2006 election by blasting the Republican majority at that time for budget earmarks and uncontrolled spending.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. The Democrats didn't reform earmarks. They only made is easier for members to bury them in the verbiage of a bill, with less attention called to them, making them harder for the press and public to find. The Farm Bill, as well as much other recently passed legislation, is loaded with earmarks. The bloated Farm Bill increases spending by $30 billion over 10 years. One estimate is that in 2008 there were 11,610 earmarks from individual legislators, totaling $17.2 billion in the 12 appropriations acts for 2008.

Just two of the hundreds of earmarks in recent legislation include Hillary Clinton's earmark for a Woodstock Museum in New York and Barack Obama's earmark for a Carp Barrier on the Great Lakes in Illinois.

All the earmark spending is built into the baseline of next year's budget, so they replace this year's earmarks with new ones in next year's budget, without adding to the overall spending total. This is out-and-out fraud.

This would be a great campaign issue for 2008, except that Republicans slip in earmarks for spending in their districts at nearly the same rate Democrats do. Democrats encourage this, so that no one can raise the truth about earmarks.

There is only a brave handful of solons who are untainted and can legitimately blast earmarks, including Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn and Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake. Even John McCain is less tainted by earmarks than your garden variety Senator or Representative. He just lacks the guts to take on the fight.

Like they say inside the beltway in Washington "To get along, go along."