David Obey: “this is I guess what I would call a put up or shut up amendment for the House. It is difficult for the press to cover…”

“this is I guess what I would call a put up or shut up amendment for the House. It is difficult for the press to cover budget stories because they are complicated. It is difficult for the press to cover stories about policy because they are complicated. But it is a whole lot easier for the press and for individual Members of this House to complain about some other Member, or in the case of the press any Member, trying to do something in his district, or in the case of a House Member complaining about somebody trying to do something in a different district. We have a constitutional right to direct spending. In fact, that is the primary power of the Congress, to direct the executive branch in the spending of the taxpayers' money. The executive branch in fact directs far more spending than does the Congress, and yet I recognize a Member's individual right to object to any direct spending that is engaged in by the Congress or the executive branch. I would like to put that discussion in perspective. The last year that I was chairman of the Appropriations Committee this bill had no earmarks when it left the House. During the 12 years that the Republicans controlled this House, earmarks exploded to over 3,000. In this bill, we have cut earmarks back to 1,300. We have cut the dollar amount in this bill for earmarks back to a very small amount, less than half of the amount that was in the bill 2 years ago.”