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BillBlast: A 'Distant Rumble' In The Blogosphere

To hear Sen. Tom Coburn tell it, there is a distant rumble of grassroots outrage against runaway federal spending, and the federal money that lawmakers funnel to pet projects back home is Exhibit A.

But the rumble apparently is so distant that only a handful of the Oklahoma Republican's colleagues can hear it. When presented with the opportunity yesterday to eliminate the spending for some of those projects, the Senate answered with a resounding "no."

None of Coburn's amendments to a federal spending bill mustered more than 15 votes, and Coburn was the only senator who dared to speak on the floor against the home-state projects backed by his colleagues.

Mark Tapscott of the Heritage Foundation explains why Coburn's quest failed. But the debate still was a significant one for the blogosphere because it was inspired at least in part by the PorkBusters campaign that began about a month ago.

In fact, it's a safe bet to say that the blogosphere is where Coburn first heard that distant rumble. Remember, he is the senator whose staff sent an unsolicited e-mail to a blogger ... from Wisconsin.

All bloggers interested in the PorkBusters campaign should take the time to read the entire Senate debate. But for those who just want the soundbites, you can find the highlights in the extended entry of this post.

For starters, here is a key quote from Coburn:

Why should we be troubled? Because all change starts with a distant rumble, a rumble at the grassroots level, and if you stop and listen today, you will hear such a rumble right now. That rumble is the sound of hard-working Americans who are getting increasingly angry with out-of-control government spending, waste, fraud, and abuse.

... That is a rumble of frustration that is getting louder. In fact, I hear it right now. That is because I am listening for it. We should all listen for it. If we don't, the voters will decide the changes that will come. And I can't say that I blame them.

-- Christopher Bond, R-Mo.: "[T]his amendment and the others like it makes excellent headlines, and they will be welcomed by some newspaper editorials, some talk-radio-show hosts, but it would be a better headline if the senator were actually attacking a project in his state. If he thinks that appropriations for museums is so bad, what about the money in there for the Ponca City Indian Museum? Does he feel that is an appropriate priority for the state of Oklahoma?"

-- Coburn: "I had no idea the Ponca City Indian Museum was in there. You will get an amendment quickly to get that out. I had no knowledge it was there. My senior senator [Republican James Inhofe] must have put that in there. I have no problems with the same standard being applied to Oklahoma as it is to everyone else."

-- Patty Murray, D-Wash.: "If the senator from Oklahoma wants to look for a culprit for the fiscal situation in this country, he should look into the billions and billions of dollars in tax cuts that have been granted to multimillionaires in this country, and he should look at additional tax cuts his party wants to implement in future years if he wants to find incredible savings. ... We are not going to watch the senator pick out one project and make it into a whipping boy."

-- Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb.: "There are many priorities, and it is up to us to balance those priorities. But in balancing the priorities, we must keep in mind that the community development funds are designed so that members of the Senate can go home and listen to the communities as to what they need and what will work best for their development, for their particular needs. It is an opportunity to get away from what happens in Washington so very often: nameless, faceless, hired bureaucrats who make a decision about what a community needs rather than the elected officials who, in consultation with the communities, are then able to help establish those priorities."

-- Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska: "This amendment is an offense to me. It is not only an offense to me; it is a threat to every person in my state. ... The amendment may pass, but if it does, the bill will never be passed. If it does, I will be taken out of here on a stretcher."

-- Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska: "Let us speak first to the bridge in Ketchikan. It has been referred to on this floor as a 'bridge to nowhere.' ... [T]he reference to the bridge in Ketchikan as being a bridge to nowhere is offensive. It is a bridge to the future for the people of Ketchikan, Alaska."

-- Stevens: "I will put the Senate on notice -- and I don't kid people: If the Senate decides to discriminate against our state and take money only from our state, I will resign from this body. This is not the Senate I came to. This is not the Senate I devoted 37 years to. If one senator can decide he will take all the money from one state to solve a problem of another, that is not a union. That is not equality and is not treating my state the way I have seen it treated for 37 years."

-- Coburn: "[T]he purpose of my amendment does not have that much to do with Alaska as it does with priorities in our country. ... My hope is the American public will see how we are spending money and encourage us to spend it in a way that is more frugal and consistent with the heritage we have in the country, and that is making sacrifices today for the future of our country and for the next generation."

-- Inhofe: "I happen to be the person with the No. 1 most-conservative rating in the Senate, and yet I am not about to put myself in a position where I am going to take authority away from someone who has to stand for election in a particular state and give it to someone who does not have to stand for election, period."

Posted by | 12:13 PM

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Comments

I think we should give the bridges a try or else if we dont think of all those people who have to fly to get supplies for their families and friends.

Raven | 03.28.06 04:58 PM

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