Republicans: No more pork!

There isn't anything I can say about the disgusting habit of earmarks, which are returning with a vengeance, which Rep. Boehner hasn't said here.

Pork Barrel Stonewall
The Democrats refuse to allow public scrutiny of all earmarks.
Wall Street Journal - Opinion Journal

House Republicans have launched a renewed effort to change the way Congress spends taxpayers' money. Our goal: Stop Congress from tucking members' pet spending projects into bills without public scrutiny and debate.

Pork-barrel earmarks were an important factor in the loss of the GOP majority last November. Years of irresponsible earmarks, slipped into bills behind closed doors without public debate or scrutiny, eroded Republicans' reputation as the party of fiscal responsibility and trustworthy custodians of taxpayer funds.

I've never made a secret of my distaste for worthless pork. Just a few months after being elected as majority leader last year, we enacted comprehensive reforms that brought the earmark process out into broad daylight. All taxpayer-funded earmarks had to be publicly disclosed and subject to challenge and debate. If you sponsor a project, we argued, you ought to be willing to put your name on it and defend it -- and if you're not, you shouldn't ask taxpayers to pay for it. These reforms were the right thing to do -- and they still are.