By David Hogberg -- BombThrowers——Bio and Archives--October 30, 2017
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The Club for Growth has compiled 19 anti-pork amendments brought to the floor of the House by Congressman Jeff Flake between late May and late June of this year. It included votes to remove all-important spending initiatives like $1 million for the Mystic Aquarium in New Haven, CT., $180,000 for hydroponic water tomato production in Ohio, and $1 million for the Juniata Locomotive Demonstration. My favorite was $229,000 for dairy education in Iowa. (Having lived in Iowa for nine years, I offer this hint for those who want to learn about dairies: Find a farm with a cow.) I suppose that last one counts as improvement since it’s not $50 million for an indoor rainforest. Here are the results: 111 GOP members — almost half — voted against all of the anti-pork amendments. That included Jerry Lewis, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and fearless leaders Majority Leader John Boehner and Majority Whip Roy Blunt. Over three-quarters of the members voted for less than half of the amendments, while only 19 voted for all of them. Indeed, just under twenty percent of GOP members voted for 13 or more of the amendments. (For a list of those taxpayer heroes, go here.) No amendment received more than 92 votes in favor, meaning that no single anti-pork amendment received even half of the votes of the GOP. That, in a word, sucks.Flake was a bright light in a very dark period for conservatives, at least when it came to federal spending. A few years later the Tea Party movement would take up the pork-busting banner, and Congress would vote to end earmarks. Flake had prevailed.
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David Hogberg is a writer living in Maryland. He is author of the book, “Medicare’s Victims: How the U.S. Government’s Largest Health Care Program Harms Patients and Impairs Physicians.”
David Hogberg (@DavidHogberg) | Twitter