Coburn's pork busting driving Reid up a tree

Washington Times:

The Senate will soon consider legislation with an impressive-sounding name — Advancing America's Priorities Act. But the bill being pushed by Democratic leaders includes lots of lawmakers' pet priorities, such as a commission on the "Star-Spangled Banner" and the War of 1812, $1.5 billion for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and $5 million for a museum in Poland.

The legislation lumps nearly 40 separate bills into one and authorizes numerous "earmarks," the targeted spending for projects that Democrats often ridiculed as pork-barrel when they swept into power 18 months ago.

Critics are even more concerned about the way all this spending might be approved. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, is threatening to use a parliamentary tactic known as "filling the tree," which would preclude amendments and make it difficult for lawmakers and the White House to block projects they consider wasteful.

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One of the biggest items in the legislation is $1.5 billion for Washington's Metrorail system, which the conservative Heritage Foundation calls the "biggest earmark in history." The think tank notes that the project is seven times more expensive than the so-called "bridge to nowhere" that became a symbol of excessive spending in the last Republican-led Congress.

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Why is it that the public perceives Democrats are better at managing spending? That never made sense to me and bills like this prove it is a misplaced concept. Coburn has been very effective at throwing sand in the gear box of spending and exposing the process. The Democrats rightly perceive him as a very dangerous man who can't be bought.