17 Republicans joined the Democrats in passing the plan that had been worked out by negotiators from both parties. McCain and Flake both indicated in advance of the Thursday night vote that they would not support it, primarily because of some of the wasteful spending contained in it.
Early in the day, Flake was interviewed on NPR's Here & Now program, and tried to distinguish what happens in omnibus bills like this from the earmarks of days gone by that he successfully railed against:
The full transcript of the interview is below the jump, but here is a key portion:
HOBSON: Well, the other thing that some people may look at is these things that I know nobody's calling earmarks, but they certainly look a lot like earmarks.McCain prepared statements to speak on the floor to express his several concerns with the plan: “With our country facing a rapidly growing $17.3 trillion dollar debt, which amounts to more than $54,000 per citizen, it is time for Congress to return to ‘regular order’ and consider each one of the 12 individual appropriations bills in turn to fund the activities of our government before the end of the fiscal year – with ample time for debate and amendment, instead of ramming through massive 1,582 page Omnibus appropriation bills like the one before us today. The American taxpayer expects more and deserves better than what we are giving them in this bill."
FLAKE: Yeah, fortunately over the past couple of years we have banned the practice of earmarking, ostensibly. There are still things that look a lot like earmarking, like you say. The truth is that the, you know, in its heyday back in 2005, 2006, there was some 16,000 earmarks, about $40 billion worth spread across the appropriation bills. So the practice has been largely marginalized, at least, and that's a good thing.
But a lot of the programs that grew up during the earmark era just continue in these agencies and have continued in the president's budget or directed by congressmen.
HOBSON: Well, what do you call what's in this bill, if they're not earmarks?
FLAKE: Well, directed funding I guess you would say. People in position on the appropriations committees are in a position to more easily make sure their programs of choice continue to get funding. But it has, like I said, it's been marginalized largely. There's far, far, far less of it that's happening now. And, you know, sometimes it takes the form of letter-marking or calling the agencies, asking them to continue funding. And, you know, the agencies know who butters their bread, too. And so they're not wanting to go against any direction from appropriators.
The rest of his statement is below the jump. Arizona's Politics could not locate the video on C-Span's feed this morning, and suspects that he did not end up delivering them. However, at the beginning of the day, he did rip into the Senators who put the omnibus bill together for allowing "secret provision" that deals with shifting the drone program from the CIA to the Pentagon. An article on the front page of yesterday's Washington Post had called his attention to it.
