Tracking Earmarks is Nice -- But What About Phonemarks?

Tracking Earmarks is Nice -- But What About Phonemarks?


The Hill reports that OMB director Rob Portman is pledging to
track earmarks in all spending bills enacted for 2008:

The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) stated Thursday that it will keep track of earmarks during the 2008 fiscal year appropriations process.
In a memo to all executive branch agency heads, OMB Director Rob Portman asked all agencies to report to OMB the number and dollar value of earmarks within seven days after an appropriations bill is either reported by the House or Senate appropriations committees or passed on the House or Senate floor.
We are going to be more aggressive on earmarks going into the appropriations cycle, said Portman at a meeting with reporters. The notion is not that every earmark is bad or there shouldn’t be any earmarks. The notion is that this has gotten out of control.
Good government groups will join fiscal conservatives in welcoming this good news. But perhaps your optimism will be tempered when you find out who else is enthusiastically backing this development:

A spokesman for Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) said that OMB should have no problem in finding earmarks, thanks to new transparency requirements.
They should have a very easy time in identifying those earmarks, said spokesman Tom Gavin. All of that information will made be available and in a very upfront fashion.
This sounds suspiciously like the fox giving compliments on the security
at the henhouse. Can there be any explanation other than that he's
figured out a way to pick the lock?

In the case of Senator Byrd, it might be that he's pleased with the way 'phonemarking 'is going:

When the new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives passed
one of its first spending bills, funding the Energy Department for the
rest of 2007, it proudly boasted that the legislation contained no money
earmarked for lawmakers' pet projects and stressed that any prior
congressional requests for such spending "shall have no legal effect."

Within days, however, lawmakers including Senate Majority Leader
Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) began directly contacting the Energy Department.
They sought to secure money for their favorite causes outside of the
congressional appropriations process -- a practice that lobbyists and
appropriations insiders call "phonemarking."

The truth is that phonemarking is a sign of important progress in the effort to squelch earmarked spending. 'Phonemarks' cannot be made legally binding;
it's up to the Executive Branch to decide whether to cooperate in the process.

The next logical step for earmark opponents may be to push federal
agencies to monitor and disclose all efforts by members of Congress
and their staffs to 'lobby' for specific spending items--whether
that lobbying occurs by phone, E-mail, letter, or other means.


see more at............
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2007/06/tracking_earmarks_is_nice_but_1.asp


www.mccainalert.com

is Hillary flying high on corporare jet charters ?

is Hillary flying high on corporare jet charters ?

Hillary publicly denounces the wasteful spending of chief executives
in corporate America, but then she and her husband accept
corporate jet charters worth almost one million dollars
from InfoUSA Inc. She needs to practice what she preaches!


Hillary didn’t violate any Senate rules accepting corporate
jet charters from Vinod Gupta, chief executive of the data
company InfoUSA Inc. All flights were reimbursed and disclosed
according to Federal Election Commission and Senate ethic rules!


http://www.vote.com/vote/60509613/index.phtml?cat=4075633

Outrage the book by Dick Morris

"Outrage" by Dick Morris and his wife Eileen McGann, looks like a very enlightening book.,

Half of all illegal immigrants came into this country legally and we have no way of knowing they’re still here!

Congressmen are putting their wives on their campaign payrolls so that campaign contributions are really personal bribes!

The ACLU won’t allow its own directors free speech.


Liberals want to strip us of the tools to stop terrorism.

The UN is a cover for massive corruption and eighty countries, who pay 12 percent of the budget, are blocking reform.

Drug companies pay off doctors to write scripts whether we need them or not.


Teachers unions block the firing of bad teachers and battle against higher education standards!


Katrina victims are being stiffed by their insurance companies!

Special interests cost our consumers $45 billion through trade quotas that save only a handful of jobs!

Never heard of these abuses? You won’t in the mainstream media. That’s why Dick Morris and Eileen McGann wrote Outrage. Their proposals:

Ban immigration from terrorist countries
Ban Congress putting spouses on their payroll
Ban lobbyists who are related to senators or congressmen
Ban nicotine additives to cigarettes
Ban trade quotas that drive up prices and save few jobs
Ban drug company bribes to doctors
Ban teachers unions’ work rules that stop education reform
Ban insurance companies from backing out on Katrina coverage

In Outrage, you’ll get the facts and learn what we can do about them. You won’t read about these outrages anyplace else; too many people are working hard to cover them up. Get them here instead and learn how to fight the special interests of the left and right.

About the Author Dick Morris and Eileen McGann:

Dick Morris served as Bill Clinton's political consultant for twenty years.
A Fox News political analyst, he is the author of five New York Times bestsellers, including Rewriting History and Condi vs. Hillary.

Eileen McGann, an attorney and consultant, is CEO of Vote.com and Legalvote.com.

She works with Dick on campaigns around the world, specializing in using the Internet to win elections. They live in Florida.