The War Over Earmarks, Cont.

As we noted a few days ago, the House of Representatives has been embroiled in a battle over the Democrats’ effort to roll back the earmark reforms that were initiated in the last Congress by the Republicans. The Democrats are trying to adopt a program of secret earmarks to avoid accountability to the voters. Toward this end, they have planned to “air drop” earmarks into legislation at the conference committee stage, and to certify as “earmark free” legislation that in fact contains earmarks.
As the minority, the Republicans’ only recourse is to shine the light of day on Democratic corruption. They have been doing that quite effectively, with the result that earlier today, the Democrats caved in to the Republicans’ demands for transparency. Now, though, it appears that the Dems may be backtracking on their agreement. Further, they are trying to limit debate on their spending bills, something that the Republicans say is unprecedented in American history.
Some of the House Republicans put together this video, which shows some of the highights of the last week. It includes footage of our friend Michele Bachmann speaking on the floor of the House. Check it out:

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