The end of earmarks?

Republicans swore off pork-barrel spending for a year, outdoing Democrats who had just approved a more modest measure. Is this the end of pork, or just political posturing?

Is this it for pork spending?
(Image credit: Corbis)

Last Thursday, House Republicans declared a one-year moratorium on the practice of stuffing bills full of earmarks, or special projects lawmakers request for their home states or districts. A day earlier, House Democrats swore off earmarks for private companies. Both sides want voters in November's midterm elections to see them as the enemies of "pork barrel" spending. Does either party really mean it? (Watch a CBS report about the move to ban earmarks)

Republicans are attacking spending problems head on: The GOP moratorium will do more good than the "half-measures" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Democrats are offering, says Mary Katherine Ham in The Weekly Standard. Earmarks "are a clear symbol of something that's wrong with Washington," and Republicans will really impress voters "if they have the will to stick" to it.

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