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发帖数: 1 | 1 Besides those policy victories, many lawmakers of both parties had one
incentive to back the spending package that they have not enjoyed since 2010
. Democratic leaders restored the old practice of earmarks, hometown
projects for lawmakers that Congress dropped in 2011 because voters viewed
it as a sleazy misspending of taxpayers' money.
The practice restored, the expansive spending bill was laced with thousands
of the projects at a price tag of several billion dollars. A decade or two
ago, the numbers were often higher than that.
Affirming the practice's popularity, the Senate rejected an amendment by Sen
. Mike Braun, R-Ind., to strip the earmarks from the package. Braun said the
earmarks encompassed 367 pages that weighed five pounds and showed “the
swamp is rising again.” The amendment's defeat by a bipartisan 64-35 margin
spoke for itself. |
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