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A closely watched proposal for a congressional “time out” on earmark spending failed by a wide margin late Thursday night, creating some unusual Senate alliances along the way. Senators voted 71-29 against a measure by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) that would have imposed a one-year moratorium on earmarks. The measure needed 60 votes to pass because it was ruled non-germane to the budget, prompting DeMint to ask that the Budget Act be waived. Presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) all voted for the amendment, as expected. In a surprise, so did Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a longtime top appropriator for Kentucky who has traditionally taken a skeptical approach to the idea of limiting earmark spending. "The DeMint-McCain amendment would have provided an important pause to allow us all—those who oppose earmarks and those who favor them—to take a step back, build a better oversight system, and allow these reforms to be implemented," McConnell said in a subsequent statement. McCain, DeMint and fellow GOP Sens. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina immediately excoriated the vote in remarks to reporters. DeMint blamed such votes for Congress' low approval ratings. Coburn called the vote evidence of a "sickening addiction," and McCain said it proved Congress was "the last bastion in America that doesn't get it" regarding government spending. McCain also pointedly said such votes were why Republicans lost Congress in 2006, singling out Sen. Ted Stevens’s (R-Alaska) infamous "Bridge to Nowhere." "It wasn't the war in Iraq that caused us to lose in 2006, it was the wasteful, pork-barrel spending," McCain said. "Ask any county Republican chairman in America. Ask any Republican operative in America." As did most Democrats, Democratic Leader Harry Reid voted against the measure. “Never in the history of the budget has one amendment been hyped so much but fail so miserably,” said a senior Democratic aide. |
