Pushing Pork, Bashing Bureaucrats
Members of Congress continue to hide behind bureaucrat-bashing as a means of defending the explosion of pork-barrel earmarks. Today's New York Times report on the efforts of Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., this week to eliminate funding for pet projects from two spending bills included some choice quotes:
- Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Ohio: "Who knows the needs of their constituents better, bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., or the people elected to Congress?"
- Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-Texas: Money cut from the bills would simply revert to agencies to be doled out by "career bureaucrats."
- Rep. David Obey, D-Wis.: Legislators should control where the money goes because they know more than "the anonymous bureaucrats downtown."
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Government Executive Editor in Chief Tom Shoop, along with other editors and staff correspondents, take a fresh look at news affecting the management and operations of the federal bureaucracy.
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