Which Texas Congressmen Hate Earmark Reform?

Title IV of House Resolution 6 passed earlier this week by the U.S. Congress is the portion of the new House rules that governs ethics reforms, specifically earmark reform.

It is interesting to note that every Texas Republican save one voted against this measure in the roll call vote:

Joe Barton, Kevin Brady, Michael Burgess, John Carter, Michael Conaway, John Culberson, Louie Gohmert, Kay Granger, Ralph Hall, Jeb Hensarling, Sam Johnson, Kenny Marchant, Michael McCaul, Randy Neugebauer, Ron Paul, Pete Sessions, Lamar Smith

Only Mac Thornberry (R-Clarendon) voted for earmark reform out of all of the stat’s Republican congress members.

Of course, the Republicans will frame that debate differently. As this title also included the “Pay Go” reform package, this is where Republicans aimed their sites. So, they attacked Pay Go claiming it will require more taxes. Thus, they voted against earmark reforms based on their own misunderstanding of Pay Go since both were tied together.

Jeb Hensarling (R-Dallas), also chair of the Republican Study Committee, had this to say on PayGo:

Unfortunately, what is being offered, where the minority doesn’t have an opportunity to amend, is really false advertising, because what we have, Madam Speaker, is, number one, this concept called baseline budgeting, where these programs are going to grow automatically in what we call discretionary spending, and yet this PAYGO doesn’t apply to this. Anything that the majority writes into the budget resolution again is exempted from PAYGO. All of the entitlement spending, a majority of the spending, which could bankrupt our children and our grandchildren, once again is exempt.

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Again, this is false advertising. This isn’t PAYGO; this is TAXGO. All this is is a subterfuge to make sure that hardworking American families are denied the tax relief that the Republicans and President Bush brought, the tax relief that created 6 million new jobs, that created the highest rate of homeownership in the history of our country, that helped deficits fall, that ensured that real wages came up. That is why we need to oppose this rule, Madam Speaker.

Hensarling doesn’t directly say so (though other speakers did), but part of the PayGo debate is about programs like Social Security, Medicare, and food stamps, which Republicans love to call “entitlement spending.” They claim that entitlement spending will cause a tax hike as a result of Pay Go. I dispute that, but it is where many Republicans are hanging their hat.

Also, over at Delegation Watch, check out what Jackson Lee, Lampson, and Doggett had to say on HRes5, which enabled the consideration of HRes6.

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