Earlier this week in an editorial entitled “Washington’s spending corruption is a bipartisan rot,” we took to task Rep. James Oberstar, D-MN, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, along with Rep. John Mica, R-FL, the ranking minority member, for their collaboration in crafting a $500 billion transportation spending bill. We also included in that critique Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-OR, and Rep. John Duncan, R-TN, chairman and ranking minority member, respectively of a key subcommittee of that panel.

In the editorial, we noted, based upon calculations by Taxpayers for Common Sense, that “the bill includes nearly 12,000 earmarks, together worth more than $19 billion.”