[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3138]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          ORWELLIAN EARMARKING

  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, in his novel, 1984, George Orwell 
presents this concept of doublethink, which is defined as, ``The power 
of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously and 
accepting both of them.''
  I come to the floor today, Mr. Speaker, to review the repetitive lack 
of openness and accountability that we have seen on this House floor 
over the last month. Time and again, this new majority has governed on 
the premise that if you simply just say it, it will become true. It is 
Orwellian doublethink, an amazing concept.
  They believe that if you simply just say you are lowering drug 
prices, poof, it's done, ignoring the reality that prices really won't 
be lowered and fewer drugs will be made available to our seniors.
  They believe that if you just say you are implementing all of the 9/
11 Commission's recommendations, it changes the fact that the bill that 
was passed here on the floor doesn't reflect the totality of those 
recommendations.
  They believe that if you just say you are cutting interest rates in 
half for college students, it doesn't matter that in reality you've 
pulled a bait-and-switch, with the rate cut lasting just 6 months.
  Mr. Speaker, saying it doesn't make it so. And Democratic doublethink 
does a disservice to this Nation.
  Now this makes for great talking points and great press releases, but 
yields very little for the people back home. Rather than bold policy 
initiatives, people are starting to realize that the Democratic agenda 
has been more pop than fizz. And now, Mr. Speaker, the Democrats are 
using this Orwellian newspeak, doublethink, in regard to spending 
Americans' hard-earned tax dollars.
  On December 11 of last year, 2006, the two chairmen of the 
Appropriations Committee in the House and Senate, Obey and Byrd, said, 
and I quote, ``There will be no congressional earmarks in the joint 
funding resolution that we will pass.'' No earmarks. But sadly, once 
again, the facts just don't match the promises. Democratic doublethink 
is alive and well.
  The majority used a loophole in the House rules to include millions 
of dollars of earmarks by simply saying that there were none. Clause 9 
of rule XXI of the House rules says that it shall not be in order to 
consider a bill or joint resolution unless the chairman of each 
committee of initial referral has a statement that the proposition 
contains no congressional earmarks. So the chairman of the 
Appropriations Committee, Mr. Obey, conveniently submitted to the 
record on January 29 that prior to the omnibus bill being considered, 
quote, ``does not contain any congressional earmarks, limited tax 
benefits, or limited tariff benefits.'' But, in fact, Mr. Speaker, this 
omnibus spending bill that the Democrats passed last week contained 
hundreds of millions of dollars of earmarks. Democrat doublethink.
  If we follow this Democrat policy as long as you submit to the record 
that there are no earmarks, you can feel free to just load up any 
appropriations bill with as many earmarks as you like with absolutely 
no accountability.
  Their actions completely violate the spirit of our earmarking rule, 
designed to bring greater transparency to our spending process. Rather 
than take the new rule seriously, the Democrat majority has used this 
sly interpretation that essentially allows for unlimited earmarks. In 
this new Democrat majority, if you just close your eyes and say there 
are no earmarks, miraculously millions of dollars of earmarks are 
wasted on things like rain forests in Iowa.
  This isn't the type of open and honest government that our 
constituents expected in this Congress. Mr. Speaker, this doublethink 
is unacceptable to the American people, who work hard every day to 
provide for their families only to have Washington throw away their 
money, unsupervised, on pork projects.
  There was a positive and honest and principled alternative to this 
spending injustice. Republicans offered an alternative eliminating 
these earmarks and targeting funds for military housing and drug 
enforcement. Our friends on the other side of the aisle chose to ignore 
it and throw money at their pet earmark projects.
  For 12 years our colleagues on the other side blamed Republicans for 
every ill under the sun, and now that it is their time to govern, they 
hide behind bumper sticker and press release politics. Never before has 
such an enormous amount of taxpayer money been spent so quickly, over 
$400 billion in one hour.
  If our friends on the other side of the aisle truly desired to clean 
up earmarks and bring greater transparency to our spending, why would 
they then make this their first act? Their actions simply don't match 
their rhetoric. The American people expect more than a wink and a nod 
that they have gotten so far from this Democrat majority. Democrat 
doublethink does a disservice to our Nation.
  In George Orwell's 1984 Doublethink Newspeak, he said that the lie 
always was one step ahead of the truth; but the American people are 
catching up, Mr. Speaker. Just saying something doesn't make it so.

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