Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) will offer an amendment to the nearly 5,000-page $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill that, if adopted by the lame-duck Senate, would erase more than 4,000 earmarks from the measure.
“There are, let me get the exact numbers, $9.8 billion worth of earmarks. Thousands of individual projects here—both Democrat and Republican,” Johnson told reporters at a Dec. 20 news conference.
“It is interesting to note on the Republican side, we actually have a conference resolution that we don’t support earmarks. Well, we’re supporting over $4 billion worth. Democrats are getting $5.4 billion worth of earmarks,” Johnson said.
“This is the gateway drug to the massive deficit spending, to the mortgaging of our children’s futures. It has to stop, which is why I’m going to offer an amendment to eliminate all those earmarks in this massive omnibus spending bill,” Johnson told reporters….