Much of the discussion on Capitol Hill nowadays centers on earmarks: those discrete priorities that senators and representatives quietly insert into moving legislation. While House Republicans celebrate a commitment by Democrats to subject earmarks to scrutiny and challenge, word comes that one of the Senate’s committed earmark foes is casting his gaze in a new direction:
Shocking indeed, that anyone would find this disclosure insufficient to warrant the expenditure of taxpayer dollars. How could anyone need to know more than is shown here (in a randomly-selected disclosure page from the relevant committee report). No reasonable person can find fault with Senator Coburn for not being entirely satisfied with the information disclosed in the report. To ask for additional scrutiny is not the same as recklessly opposing every specific spending provision. More Senators would do well to show the interest Coburn is in how the committees propose to spend taxpayer dollars. After all, aren’t they the ones who take the blame for $500 toilet seats and $800 hammers? If you’re going to vote for them, might as well know about it beforehand.
