Boyda on the front lines of earmark reform

It's interesting that both of the major anti-Nancy Boyda blogs picked today to throw up posts lambasting Congresswoman Nancy Boyda for securing money for projects for communities all over the district. (Gasp! How horrible! She's helping improve the lives of Kansans! Stop her!)

We all here think the earmark debate is silly, and that it is stunningly hypocritical of the Republicans to cry fowl now, even though they never did anything about dreaded earmarks when they were in control for more than a decade.

Don't let the facts get in front of the rhetoric, right?

Really, though, their attacks aren't because she's helping her district (even they won't say that's bad). No, they're attacking her because she's lying- LYING I say!- about wanting to reform the process because, jeez, anyone who would dare use the process must be against changing it.

Right?

Wrong- as they so often are.

Earmarks are only bad when they're wasteful- and they're bad when they're secret. None of Congresswoman Boyda's funding requests are wasteful because they help Kansans, and she has certainly been more up front about her requests than any other member of the Kansas delegation- making all of them public, not just the ones approved.

That in itself was an amazing step in the right direction. Boyda didn't stop there, and voted for the most sweeping earmark reform bill in history her first month in office. Only days ago voted for a total moratorium on earmarks until the process is further reformed and other members are held to the same standard she already holds herself. The Club for Growth praised her for that one, along with the 7 other Democrats who broke ranks and voted with the Republicans.

Reform hasn't gone far enough- probably Congresswoman Boyda would agree on that- but this Congress, and Nancy Boyda, have gone farther than the Republicans ever did to eliminate wasteful spending (including cutting earmarks in half from the 2006 Republican level).

But, this quote sums up what's really going on here:

So what is all this shouting about? Could it be an effort to distract voters from the record, which is that under Republican rule, pork-spending in Congress jumped from $12 billion in 1999 to $29 billion in 2006, the Times op-ed points out. "The Republicans are the last people who should be lecturing on earmark reform," said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Doug Thornell. "They have absolutely no credibility on this issue."

Boyda's done more to reform the process than Ryun ever did, and has still been able to make sure important projects have been funded back at home. While the Republicans might not realize it, Congresswoman Boyda obviously knows this isn't an either/or situtation- you can be responsible within an irresponsible system while working to reform it- and the only ones being hypocrites are the Republicans.

And thank you Bounce Boyda and Stay Red Kansas for the chance to point that out!