Both Virginia Senators Approve of Pork-Barrel Spending
At least that’s “the bottom line” from a new earmark reform index created by Mark Tapscott of the DC Examiner in an editorial yesterday. According to the index Senators John Warner (R) and Jim Webb (D) “are adamantly opposed to reforming their appropriations perks, no matter what the public says.”
The index looked at how senators voted on 12 key earmark reform opportunities (five of the votes were pre-2007, which means that Sen. Webb's record counts only seven votes). Tapxcott, the newspaper’s editorial page editor, began the editorial thus:
“Congress appears headed to approve a record number of earmarks (accesses an Excel spreadsheet created by the Examiner) in 2007, despite the fact that last November angry voters registered their disgust with the practice by electing Democrats who pledged a new era of transparency in government spending.”
Warner voted for three of the reform opportunities, and ended up with a score of 24.9 while Webb has an index score of 0.0. Tapscott explained the index results like this:
“The results make clear that Senate opposition to earmark reform crosses party lines and includes a clear majority of 72 members who scored less than 50 in the index. Most of the 72 scored lower than 40, meaning they voted for earmark reform three or fewer times out of 12 selected chances.”
Overall, the average score for the Senate was only 30.6. The average among Democrats was 14.3, but Republican partisans have little to cheer about because the GOP average was only 43.9. Eight of top 10 scores were compiled by GOP senators, while eight of the bottom 10 scores were compiled by Democrats.”
Incidentally, the four senior solons of the Senate were near the bottom of the barrel, according to the index:
“Among Senate mucky mucks, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., scored 16.6, and Deputy Majority Leader Richard Durbin, D-Ill., 24.9. Both Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Deputy Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., scored 24.9.”
Remember the earmark index when you’re at the polls in November!