Key Vote “Yes” on Earmark Moratorium

On behalf of hundreds of thousands of FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to VOTE “Yes” on Sen. Jim DeMint’s Earmark Moratorium Amendment; to be offered during the Senate debate on the FY 09 budget resolution.  The Earmark Moratorium calls for a no-nonsense year-long moratorium on congressional earmarks.

Americans are clearly fed up with government spending and the earmark process is one of the most egregious areas.  Rather than funding projects based on merit, earmarks represent what has become a self-aggrandizing practice for legislators intent on “bringing home the bacon” for their districts. 

Too many lawmakers see bridges to nowhere, rainforests in Iowa, and thousands of other pet projects as their life-line to reelection, instead of focusing on good governance and the issues and people they are supposed to represent. 

As the earmark requests have increased, the oversight given this money has decreased as the Appropriations Committees in both chambers have become bogged down under the weight of so much pork.  No where is it more obvious that the taxpayer’s dollar is taken for granted than here, where it is simply given away without regard for how it will be used. 

It is time for Congress to go cold-turkey on earmarks.  Break the earmark habit and use this time to evaluate how best to fix the overall spending problem.

We will count your vote on the Earmark Moratorium amendment as a KEY VOTE when calculating the FreedomWorks Economic Scorecard for 2008. The FreedomWorks Economic Scorecard is used to determine eligibility for the Jefferson Award, which recognizes members of Congress with voting records that support economic freedom.

Sincerely,

Matt Kibbe
President and CEO
FreedomWorks.org