![[Iowa map]](http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2005/12/05/GR2005120501681.gif)
Archive: Purse Strings
McCain, Palin and Hill GOP Unite on Earmarks Issue
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- When John McCain and Sarah Palin gather here this week with congressional Republicans, there will be one topic above all on which they will try to speak with one voice: spending and earmarks. As has been much-chronicled this year, McCain and his fellow GOP lawmakers haven't...
By Ben Pershing | August 31, 2008; 03:25 PM ET | Comments (9)
Will Iraq Bill Be Signed by July 4th?
Nearly one month after the House passed its version of the supplemental spending bill to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and three weeks after the Senate approved its plan, Democratic leaders are sounding dissonant notes on whether they can get a final package signed by President Bush before...
By Ben Pershing | June 12, 2008; 02:09 PM ET | Comments (10)
With Budget Votes, Democrats Clear Key Hurdle
When Democrats took control of the House and Senate in January 2007, there was one major question they faced after 12 years in the minority: Could they govern? The jury is still out on that one, but Democrats did clear a key hurdle today with the House's passage of a...
By Ben Pershing | June 5, 2008; 04:22 PM ET | Comments (1)
Be a 'Budget Hero'
Earlier today, the Senate passed the fiscal 2009 budget conference report, a blueprint laying out where $1 trillion in federal spending should go in the coming year. The House is expected to follow suit tomorrow. Was the budget too big? Too small? Should taxes be lower or higher? Unless you're...
By Ben Pershing | June 4, 2008; 02:45 PM ET | Comments (0)
Iraq Money Faces More Delays in the House
"My patience is growing thin," Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert C. Byrd (D-W. Va.) growled today, and he wasn't referring to the typically glacial pace of the World's Greatest Deliberative Body. Instead, Byrd was looking askance across the Capitol at House Democratic leaders, who have been dragging their feet on one...
By Ben Pershing | May 8, 2008; 06:15 PM ET | Comments (3)
Byrd Watching
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) chaired an important Appropriations Committee hearing yesterday on the Iraq supplemental bill, with onlookers paying as much or more attention to the ailing 90-year-old's performance in the chair as to the underlying issue of war funding. Byrd's failing health and ability to continue to hold the...
By Ben Pershing | April 17, 2008; 11:37 AM ET | Comments (1)
The Costs of War
As the Senate begins moving on the latest military supplemental spending bill, congressional Democrats are mounting a new push to highlight the growing cost of the Iraq war and its affects on funding for domestic priorities. House and Senate Democratic leaders gathered today to tout new data from the Joint...
By Ben Pershing | April 16, 2008; 03:50 PM ET | Comments (0)
Tax Day on the Hill
Just as Tax Day reminds millions of Americans how much they dislike paying taxes, members of Congress are engaged in their annual ritual of self-flagellation for spending all that tax payer money. Of course, without taxes members of Congress wouldn't exist, nor would they be able to pay themselves $169,300...
By Ben Pershing | April 15, 2008; 02:30 PM ET | Comments (0)
Two Faces of Earmarks
With the annual appropriations season slowly coming to life on the Hill, members of Congress are once again confronting more news stories about what has become a hot-button issue -- earmarks. Wading through all the press releases in his inbox this morning, Capitol Briefing was struck by the starkly different...
By Ben Pershing | April 7, 2008; 04:49 PM ET | Comments (13)
FISA, Budget Headline Busy Week
Deadlines are usually the best medicine for congressional lethargy, and it's standard practice for House and Senate leaders to load up the last week before a break with must-pass items. So with a recess looming and several key pieces of legislation awaiting action, this week in Congress is shaping up...
By Ben Pershing | March 11, 2008; 01:14 PM ET | Comments (0)
GOP's Earmarks Crusade Has its Limits
Anti-earmark crusader Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) lost his bid for a seat on the House Appropriations Committee Thursday, and the conservative blogosphere is not happy about it. This Red State post was typical of the reaction. Under the heading, "House Republicans Aren't Serious About Earmark Reform," blogger Bluey wrote, "Just when...
By Ben Pershing | February 15, 2008; 10:55 AM ET | Comments (31)
Waxman Swears Off Earmarks
House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) is known as a master of orchestrating high-profile investigations, most recently the steroids probe that will bring Roger Clemens to testify on Capitol Hill Wednesday. But now it appears Waxman has earned a new title -- earmark crusader. In a surprise...
By Ben Pershing | February 13, 2008; 08:18 AM ET | Comments (0)
As the Earmarks Turn
Two weeks ago, House Republicans emerged from their annual retreat with a call for Democrats to agree to a temporary earmark moratorium and the formation of a bipartisan committee to recommend changes to the earmarking process. Democrats never gave much of a response -- other than to defend their own...
By Ben Pershing | February 7, 2008; 02:20 PM ET | Comments (1)
Budget Day on Capitol Hill
With Super Bowl Sunday behind us, it's time for another secular holiday - one celebrated by policy wonks across the land - Budget Day. This morning, the White House delivered its $3.1 trillion fiscal 2009 budget proposal to Capitol Hill. As many recent stories have noted, for the first time,...
By Ben Pershing | February 4, 2008; 11:20 AM ET | Comments (1)
Despite Obstacles, Stimulus Will Get Done
Reading the coverage today of the Senate's plans to tinker with the economic stimulus package, it's easy to get caught up in the idea that divisions on a host of issues could end up stalling the entire bill. With the House having approved the plan by an overwhelming margin yesterday,...
By Ben Pershing | January 30, 2008; 11:08 AM ET | Comments (0)
Do Democrats Have a Plan on Earmarks?
Over the last few days, we've learned quite a bit about what House Democrats don't like: • They don't like President Bush's vow during last night's State of the Union address to veto any appropriations bills that don't cut earmarks in half. • They don't like Bush's plan to issue...
By Ben Pershing | January 29, 2008; 04:48 PM ET | Comments (4)
SOTU Expectations Low on the Hill
Leading up to President Bush's final State of the Union speech tonight, expectations on Capitol Hill are low, though for reasons that are split along party lines. Democrats don't expect to hear much from Bush that they'll like tonight, for the simple reason that they've never expected much from him...
By Ben Pershing | January 28, 2008; 06:35 PM ET | Comments (40)
Pots, Kettles and Earmarks
President Bush plans to throw down the gauntlet on earmarks in his State of the Union address tonight, vowing to veto appropriations bills this year that don't cut earmark spending by at least half. But many members of Congress have some earmark advice of their own that they'd like Bush...
By Ben Pershing | January 28, 2008; 02:57 PM ET | Comments (0)
House GOP Backs Away From Real Earmark Moratorium
House Republicans wrap up their three-day retreat at the Greenbrier resort today having taken only modest steps toward their biggest goal for the gathering -- a bold, consensus earmark reform plan that the party can use to invigorate its disillusioned base and paint Democrats as soft on the issue. Coming...
By Ben Pershing | January 26, 2008; 11:40 AM ET | Comments (10)
Events Move Forward as GOP 'Retreats'
LEWISBURG, W.Va. -- Greetings from snowy Lewisburg, one town over from where House Republicans are gathering at the Greenbrier resort for their annual retreat. While members (and reporters) were traveling here today, two important things happened back in D.C. that will affect the retreat agenda -- a stimulus deal and...
By Ben Pershing | January 24, 2008; 04:51 PM ET | Comments (1)
Will Bush Have to Buck His Own Party on the Stimulus?
As Capitol Briefing wrote yesterday, some conservatives weren't thrilled with all the happy talk about a bi-partisan stimulus package. Today the conservative Republican Study Committee unveiled its own stimulus package in hopes of influencing the current debate in a direction more amenable to the right. The plan, dubbed the Economic...
By Ben Pershing | January 23, 2008; 01:44 PM ET | Comments (7)
Will Stimulus Train Leave Conservatives Behind?
Listening to the continued bipartisan rhetoric coming from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, it would be easy to think that Congress and President Bush are on the glide path toward agreeing on an economic stimulus package that will pass both chambers with nary a dissenting voice. But listen a little...
By Ben Pershing | January 22, 2008; 05:45 PM ET | Comments (21)
Congress on the Clock for Stimulus
The Federal Reserve can apparently turn on a dime, cutting a key interest rate as stock markets around the world go into the tank. Don't expect such quick action from Congress. House and Senate leaders are holding a meeting-fest this week, scheduling all manner of discussions, briefings, and sit-downs with...
By Ben Pershing | January 22, 2008; 01:45 PM ET | Comments (0)
Despite Blog Support, Flake Bid a Long-shot
Every so often, the liberal or conservative blogospheres will get excited and mobilized to make something happen that probably never will. Such is the case with the growing movement to get Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake (R) onto the House Appropriations Committee. Flake -- the House's best known scourge of spending...
By Ben Pershing | January 21, 2008; 07:40 PM ET | Comments (0)
Congress Ready to Stimulate
With the stock market shaky and economic worries rising to the top of the campaign issue pyramid, you can expect members of Congress to return to town in the next two weeks with money on their minds. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is no Ben Bernanke - Congress can't just wave...
By Ben Pershing | January 11, 2008; 12:20 PM ET | Comments (0)
McCain Absent for Vote on Woodstock Earmark
John McCain wasn't at Woodstock, nor was he on hand in the Senate last week to help kill the $1 million earmark that Hillary Rodham Clinton wanted for a museum honoring the 1969 music festival. The Arizona senator's presidential campaign has been making political hay over earmark, hammering Clinton for...
By Paul Kane | October 26, 2007; 06:59 PM ET | Comments (8)
Local Officials Again Reject Alaskans' Earmarks
It was a long, hot summer for Alaska's two senior members of Congress -- Sen. Ted Stevens (R) and Rep. Don Young (R -- as both came under scrutiny in a burgeoning corruption investigation in their home state. And now even their earmarking power is losing some of its pop....
By Paul Kane | September 28, 2007; 06:10 PM ET | Comments (7)
Fla. County Says 'No Thanks' to $10 million Earmark
In a highly rare move, a local planning commission in Southwest Florida today overwhelmingly voted to reject a $10 million congressional earmark for a highway project, declaring that local officials never wanted the money in the first place. The Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization passed a resolution pleading for Congress...
By Paul Kane | August 17, 2007; 04:45 PM ET | Comments (20)
Emanuel's Earmark Curve Ball
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) today displayed his flair for political gamesmanship, releasing a list of two dozen 2008 budget "earmark" requests he has made to the House Appropriations Committee. Rep. Rahm Emanuel puts his earmark cards on the table. (Getty Images) Emanuel, who is No. 4 in the House Democratic...
By Paul Kane | June 18, 2007; 04:29 PM ET | Comments (19)
Iraq Supplemental Debate: The Final Act
The battle over the supplemental spending bill for the Iraq war can be boiled down into a five-act play, heading toward a climactic showdown at some point next month. The first two acts have already been completed, with the House and Senate passing versions of the supplemental and setting differing...
By Paul Kane | April 5, 2007; 07:12 AM ET | Comments (38)
Byrd to Take Center Stage in Iraq Debate
Senate committee hearings are generally dull, but this coming week brings one of those witness panels to Capitol Hill that should at least provide entertaining theatrics to those on both sides of the Iraq war debate. The Senate Appropriations Committee takes up the Bush administration's proposal for a $100 billion...
By Paul Kane | February 24, 2007; 07:35 AM ET | Comments (35)
The Budget Dance Begins
The annual budget proposal landed in Washington today with its traditional pomp and circumstance, yet the Democratic takeover of Congress makes the $2.9 trillion White House plan essentially dead on arrival. But that doesn't mean the budget will be dismissed outright. Instead, this budget proposal will be debated publicly on...
By Paul Kane | February 5, 2007; 04:15 PM ET | Comments (8)
