I was at the kick-off for the Ending Earmarks Express this morning. I've blogged about the bus before, but Americans for Prosperity is taking a busload of fiscal hawks around the country to visit sites of the 50 most egregious earmarks the American people have been privileged to fund. The few folks in Congress who are anti-earmarks showed up to speak.
Sen. Tom Coburn:
"I don't think we can highlight enough to the American people how broken the spending mechanism is in Washington.""Earmarks are a gateway drug to overspending."
"What we have is a broken, sick process."
Rep. Tom Feeney:
"If Republicans are not going to be the adult party, America won't have an adult party."
Rep. Scott Garrett:
"Whenever we spend on earmarks are anything else, it needs to pass two tests--does it fit the test of if it's constitutional and is it worth paying for?""Are we looking forward or backwards? When motorists are out there stuck in traffic...do they think their money is going backwards to a museum or toward road construction?"
Here is AFP's new website, which will chart the route of the Ending Earmarks Express.
The first stop today was the House gymnasium-- a $3 million, brand-new facility for House staffers, added in FY 2005.
Next up is the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, which enjoys $1.1 million in federal money for music education programs.
Then, my personal favorite-- a $500,000 earmark for a program at the University of Akron, in which students study ways for the federal government to spend less.
Check out the rest of the schedule on this helpful, clickable map. They'll post updates and pictures along the way.