One guy says:
Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said he and his Republican colleagues will discuss an earmark ban when Congress returns to Washington but gave scant support to the proposal.
...
“The problem is it doesn’t save any money,” McConnell said during a Sunday interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”….
“This debate doesn’t save any money, which is why it’s kind of exasperating to some of us who really want to cut spending and get the federal government’s discretionary accounts under control,” he said in reference to the skirmish over earmarks within the Senate GOP conference.
Then there's the other guy, Jim DeMint, on Meet the Press the same day:
We need to cut earmarks so people will quit focusing on taking home the bacon.
Guys, guys, guys. As any savvy politician can tell you, an earmark is some boondoggle in someone else's district. In your district, it's a much-needed small business/jobs program that you're gonna campaign like hell on next time around. Perhaps that will clarify it for our warring Republican overlords here.
Further, get a load of what else DeMint declared in the same interview yesterday:
We’re not talking about cuts in Social Security….We don’t have to cut benefits for seniors. And we don’t need to cut Medicare. Like-- like the Democrats did in this big Obamacare bill. We can restore sanity in Washington without cutting any benefits to seniors or veterans.
Sooo … no cuts in Social Security or Medicare or veterans' benefits, eh? We're going to get to fiscal Nirvana on earmark slashing alone, Mr. DeMint?
Hardly:
Earmarks constitute less than 1 percent of the federal budget. In most cases, they don’t add to federal expenditures but merely allow Congress to direct a small fraction of program funding that would otherwise be allocated by formula or grant competition.
Arguing over less than one percent of the federal budget is nothing but theater.
Besides the obvious unseriousness of Sen. DeMint when it comes to solving our economic problems, a much more delightful prospect is on display here. The ongoing face-off between establishment Mitch McConnell and Tea Party heartthrob Jim DeMint is going to do wonders for popcorn futures in the months ahead.
And oh, by the way, battling GOP guys? Talking like you have sweeping powers over the economic scene when you're still in the minority party in your chamber (and can't even agree amongst yourselves) makes you look like hubristic fools.