Rick Sanchez asks Mike Pence the big question, basically, where do you guys get off even mentioning government spending; and Pence has to BS his way out of it, basically the only way out...
Video
(for some reason the video is not embedding)
How does Mike Pence say that when his name is on $6.8 million worth of earmarks in 2008 alone?
Sanchez: But to quote, Congressman, one of your own, you spent like drunken sailors for eight years in this country; why weren't you making these arguments then? Why weren't you holding the throat of these guys who wanted to spend a lot of your money, aka, I think their names were... Bush and Cheney? Did you know them?
Pence: Yeah, Rick, I knew them well, but you don't know me very well. I fought my president on education spending, I fought my president - was one of 25 republicans that opposed the prescription drug entitlement, I fought the earmarking culture and run away spending under republican control and I am going to keep fighting it as Democrats go further down the road of deficit spending and debts. I believe the American people fired Republicans largely because of run away federal spending. I am sure they don't want the Democrats to do more of it.
Well, at least we know Pence is against spending on children going to school and helping people pay for prescription drugs, an "entitlement", but his battle on earmarks, though accompanied by great ballyhoo, doesn't add up. This isn't the only time Pence comes out against something he actively participates in. In 2006 he was spinning the same yarn:
Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, the chairman of the House Republican Study Committee, is alone among his top conservative allies in securing local earmarks, a review of recent fiscal 2007 appropriations bills indicates.
Pence's efforts demonstrate that while he is an outspoken national figure and advocate for conservative causes -- such as overhauling the earmark process -- it has not stopped him from securing funding for local projects. While voting against the $139.7 billion fiscal 2007 Transportation-Treasury spending bill last week, for example -- and voting for a series of amendments authored by his RSC colleague Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona to strip other members' earmarks -- Pence secured at least two of his own projects.
They include $500,000 for the "Transit Acquisition and Intermodal Facility Project" in his state, listed among dozens of bus and bus facilities grants, and $250,000 for construction of a park in Portland, Ind.
Pence also secured earmarks in the $141.9 billion fiscal 2007 Labor-HHS measure, which has yet to reach the floor. Those include $200,000 each for Ball State University's Center for School Innovation in Muncie, Ind., and to the Madison County Community Health Center in Anderson Ind., for an electronic medical records system. He also secured $100,000 for Ivy Tech Community College's Columbus, Ind., campus for cybersecurity training.
I am tired of the hypocrisy; the false witness; the lies; the obfuscation. These guys are unbelievable:
In all, an estimated $3.8 billion worth of specific projects, called "earmarks," are in the $410 billion spending bill that the House of Representatives is to vote on Wednesday. Easy passage is expected. The Senate is expected to act soon, too, since federal agencies will run out of money a week from Friday unless new funds are enacted.
House Democrats estimate that Republicans inserted 40 percent of the earmarks in the bill. An independent budget watchdog group, Taxpayers for Common Sense, said the 60-40 Democratic-Republican ratio followed historical patterns.
I agree the earmark process has gotten out of hand, but I do not agree that it should be cause celebre to obstruct legislation, especially when the obstructers are doing it themselves.