It is a bit of a slap in the face at true fiscal conservatives when some members of Congress claim to be for spending sanity one day, and loading a bill with pork the next.

That is exactly what happened yesterday as the Senate was debating whether or not certain members pet projects should be allowed to remain attached to the 2008 Labor Heath and Human Services spending bill. Tom Coburn (OK) and Jim DeMint (SC) waged a battle against pork barreling on the Senate floor, taking one victory and losing another.

The victory came against Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton’s $1,000,000 earmark for a “Woodstock Concert Museum” in New York. That project was cleared away in a 52-42 vote, in which 5 Democrats joined the Republicans in doing so. But then in an amazing back-flip, 13 Republicans voted to keep Congressman Charlie Rangel’s $2,000,000 project for the “Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Policy, the Rangel Conference Center, and the Charles Rangel Library at the City College of New York.” The Senate voted to sustain that pork 61-34.

Luckily for us Arizonan’s, conservatism still flourishes in our state, and our own Senator Jon Kyl stuck to his guns on true fiscal reform and voted to wipe out both earmarks. Other states aren’t as lucky as us to have conservatives of the Goldwater-Reagan ilk.

Ever watchful, ever mindful.

The Guard
Arizona Watchtower