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<DIV class=left><A href="http://www.nytimes.com/"><IMG
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<DIV class=timestamp>August 1, 2011</DIV>
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<H1><NYT_HEADLINE version="1.0" type=" ">Pork? That? What Do You
Mean?</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
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<P>The road to Washington is paved with broken campaign promises. But few are so
rich in hypocrisy as those of House Republican freshmen caught engineering
hometown pork even as they vow to slash the federal budget for the supposed good
of the nation. </P>
<P>In March, just months after being sworn in, 22 of them plumped for more
military spending in their districts than President Obama requested. </P>
<P>Representative Steven Palazzo, of Mississippi, who campaigned fiercely
against earmarks, voted to slash military spending and then voted for an
amendment to quietly restore the same money, including $150 million for a
warship to be built in his district. Pork? Earmark? No, he insists, saying he
merely voted for a package that happened to include that hometown goodie and the
Pentagon now must decide how to finance it. </P>
<P>These gyrations <A
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/20/us/politics/20freshmen.html">have been
detailed</A> by The Times’s Ron Nixon, who found nearly two dozen Republican
freshmen pushing hometown projects ultimately worth billions. </P>
<P>Representative Tim Scott, a Tea Party favorite from South Carolina, helped
secure the down payment on a $300 million harbor dredging project back home. Not
at all pork, said Mr. Scott, pronouncing the dredging a matter of the national
interest. In the case of a new bridge in Wisconsin, Representative Sean Duffy
reasons it’s no earmark since the legislation listed no specific costs. </P>
<P>Representative Michele Bachmann, Minnesota’s three-term incumbent and
presidential aspirant, also supports the bridge — and calls for a “redefinition”
of what an earmark is. “There’s a big difference between funding a teapot museum
and a bridge over a vital waterway,” is Ms. Bachmann’s head-scratching guidance.
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<DIV class="wrapper opposingFloatControl">__________________________________<BR
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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>Wayne A. Fox<BR><A
href="mailto:wayne.a.fox@gmail.com">wayne.a.fox@gmail.com</A><BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>