( - promoted by The Big E)
After running across John Kline's Stop The Pork website, with its "Virtual County Fair of Horrors" theme (complete with his family's own Pulled Pork recipe, but only if you give them your email address) and awful, horrible truths about the way our money is being spent (Dave Mindeman dissects the latest here far better than I could), I realized Kline was serious about the earmark process in Congress. I mean, I got his multi-page full color glossy flyers in the mail sent at taxpayer expense talking about how he didn't like wasting money, but he put up a whole website, which means he must be Very Serious.
So, I decided I wanted to look up the bills he has proposed to combat the Threat of the appropriations process. Maybe he wanted to eliminate it. Maybe he wanted to cap it. Maybe he just wanted more transparency. Other than saying "its bad", I was curious what he had in mind.
After a comprehensive search of thomas.loc.gov, I found nothing. No bills at all related to appropriations. I figured for all his talk that he'd have some bill stuck in some committee somewhere.
I did find the usual double-speak of HR 1176, which is to "ensure rights for employees" by limiting their rights. I found a very specific HR 1566 that keeps Minnesota safe by not allowing detainees at Guantanamo to be moved to Minnesota (although looking at the record, he was hardly at the forefront of this "not in my state" movement). I even found my favorite, HAmdt 136, which would change the title of HR2187 from the "21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act" to "A bill to saddle future generations with billions in debt, and for other purposes."
But nothing about his favorite target, earmarks.
John Kline. Concerned enough to not do anything. |
