The Liberty Papers

Proving once again that he cares more about the American taxpayer than Ted Stevens’ health, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has offered up some amendments to strip the “emergency” pork out of the supplemental appropriations bill:

Coburn Amendment No. 648 would strike $100 million in emergency funding for the 2008 political party conventions.

Coburn Amendment No. 649 would strike a $2 million earmark for the University of Vermont.

Coburn Amendment No. 656 would require public disclosure of all reports provided to the appropriations committees by this act

Coburn Amendment No. 657 would provide crop disaster and livestock assistance with offsets; also removes “emergency” spending for sugar beet, sugar cane, and Christmas and ornamental tree assistance

Coburn Amendment No. 717 would strike all non-war and non-veterans spending from the bill

Coburn Amendment No. 718 would strike all non-war and non-veterans spending from the bill except for funding for abestos abatement around the Capitol

If your Senator is a Democrat, call their office and suggest that supporting these amendments would go a long way to proving how “fiscally conservative” they claim to be. If your Senator is a Republican, call their office and suggest that if they are able to kill some of these earmarks, it might dry up support amongst Democrats who were bribed into voting for a timetable.

No matter what party your Senator is from, you can use this to try to score a win for the American taxpayer. At the very least, I think it’s clear that the 2008 Political Party Conventions don’t need $100M in “emergency” funding in a war supplemental bill. That’s one bit of blatant arrogance that I think we need to call them all out for.