Political Quotes

“Madam Chair, this amendment is straightforward. It would simply prevent the funding of all Member-requested earmarks in the bill. It would return the funds to the original accounts. I'm not here to dispute the merits of these projects. I have no doubt that some of those projects are worthwhile and would improve the quality of life for our military servicemembers and their families, but that's not what is at issue here. At issue, again, as I pointed out before, is the spoils system that this process of earmarking represents. This year's Military Construction-VA appropriations bill shows that the spoils system is alive and well. It's happened in previous years, and it's no different this year. The only difference here is we have basically just one party engaging in it, and so the spoils are even more concentrated in fewer Members. Let me just put this chart up here. These are the FY 2011 earmark dollars associated with powerful Members of Congress. By powerful Members I mean those who are on the Appropriations Committee, those who are in leadership, or those who are chairmen of committees. And if you look at the appropriations bills that have gone through either the subcommittee or full committee on appropriations, you see this appropriations spoils system in action here. This looks like a Pacman chart here with a hungry Pacman here. The red represents the percentage taken by powerful members.…”