Rep. Tim Scott, freshman Tea Party type from Charleston, South Carolina, managed to bring home a $150,000 appropriation to dredge the harbor in his district. Not so much, but the whole project may cost up to $300,000,000 before it is completed.
Now get this. He was quoted in the New York Times today as saying the appropriation was not an earmark. “This was a merit-based project that was open and transparent.”
Then there was Tea Party favorite Sean Duffy, who along with Michelle Bachman, is pushing for federal money to replace the Stillwater Lift Bridge over the St. Croix River. He said it’s not an earmark because there were no specific costs listed, just an authorization to build the bridge.
The article, by Ron Nixon, (<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/20/us/politics/20freshmen.html?_r=1&ref=>) discusses other equally egregious examples of “fiscal conservatives” who ran against earmarks and federal waste and are now bellying up to the trough. I wonder how they will vote on the legislation to raise the debt ceiling?
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