Hillarysworld

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GOP Splits as Senate Defeats Earmark Moratorium

By Emily Pierce, Roll Call Staff, March 16, 2010, 7:30 p.m.

The rift in the Senate Republican Conference over banning earmarks was on full display Tuesday as 15 GOP Senators joined most Democrats in killing a two-year moratorium on targeted spending provisions for Members’ pet projects.

Joining 51 Democrats and two Democratic-leaning Independents, both centrists and conservatives voted down Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-S.C.) amendment to establish an earmark moratorium for fiscal years 2010 and 2011. The 68-29 vote came on the eve of the GOP’s expected Wednesday night meeting on whether to institute an internal ban on earmark requests.

Already, Wednesday’s meeting was shaping up to be more a political exercise designed to assuage the concerns of a handful of conservatives rather than something that would produce a unified party position. Still, supporters of the ban noted that with all but one GOP leader supporting the amendment, it appeared there were enough votes internally to institute a party pledge to refrain from earmark requests.

But those leadership votes may be misleading, given the hands-off approach that Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other leaders have taken on the issue. McConnell called Wednesday’s meeting in response to last week’s House GOP leadership decision to institute a Conference-wide moratorium on earmark requests.

DeMint said before the vote that he hopes McConnell and other Senate leaders will push the issue during the meeting Wednesday.

Continues @ RollCall.com
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Ban on earmarks was always too good to be true!  They are too used to pork.  Big pork bellies there on ALL sides of the isle!