Goopers have lost the game on fiscal responsibility

Democrats See Chance to Fault Deficits and Pork

By Elizabeth Williamson and Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, June 29, 2007; A19

An industrial lubricants program, bus replacement -- and the Grout Museum. A $12 million earmark in an emergency defense bill for "industrial mobilization" on the Iowa border.
Democrats have pork spending on the menu for their grilling of Jim Nussle, President Bush's pick as White House budget director. Nussle's confirmation hearings will focus on the former congressman's pursuit of earmarks for Iowa, as well as ballooning deficits during his tenure as chairman of the House Budget Committee.

The plan, Democratic strategists say, is to use the hearings to detail the collapse of fiscal discipline during the Bush administration and to grab the offensive from Republicans who are trying to turn the debate over Democratic spending bills into a morality play on thrift.

"We're not going to let these guys act like the protectors of fiscal prudence here when they've left a sea of red ink," said Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.). He said that the as-yet-unscheduled hearings create an opportunity to give "the president's fiscal management, and what's happened to the budget, a showcase."

Nussle, an eight-term congressman who left the House last year to make an unsuccessful run for governor, was named Budget Committee Chairman in 2001, at the dawn of the Bush administration. During three of his six years at the helm, Congress did not pass a budget blueprint. Meanwhile, big spending increases and huge tax cuts sent the budget spinning from a $128 billion surplus in fiscal 2001 to a $248 billion deficit in 2006, with the red ink hitting an all-time high of $413 billion in 2004.

Nussle's critics call him an inveterate partisan who rubber-stamped Bush's unrealistically austere budget requests and pushed through tax cuts without considering the consequences for popular government programs.

"If the past is prologue, the future doesn't look bright for agreement," House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said.

Nussle's defenders say the 2000 stock market collapse and the 2001 terrorist attacks strained the economy and put new demands on federal spending, driving up the deficit. Meanwhile, they say, a closely divided Senate stymied agreement on many budget issues.

"We got thrown the biggest fiscal curve ball in modern history under his tenure," said Rep. Paul D. Ryan (Wis.), who served with Nussle on the Budget Committee and is now its ranking Republican.

Two lawmakers with whom Nussle frequently sparred -- former Senate Budget Committee chairman Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) and current House Budget Committee Chairman John M. Spratt Jr. (D-S.C.) -- defend Nussle. Spratt has even bucked fellow Democrats by offering to testify on Nussle's behalf, calling him "a fair and honorable chairman."

Democrats are also trying to call attention to Nussle's pursuit of earmarks at a time when Bush is threatening to veto House spending bills that exceed his requests, and is scolding Democrats for an "earmarking process that has led to wasteful and unnecessary spending." Yet Bush's own nominee for budget adviser, Emanuel and others point out, committed a cardinal sin in Bush's book: adding pet projects to an emergency defense bill.

According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, the number of earmarks in House spending bills exploded under Republican control, from 3,000 in 1996 to 15,000 in 2005. Infuriated by what they say is GOP hypocrisy on the issue, Democrats have been digging through Nussle's old press releases for earmarks he sponsored.

They found plenty. As budget chief, Nussle secured tens of millions of dollars for Iowa roads, bridges and buses, as well as $500,000 for an addition and exhibit at the Grout Museum, a history and science museum in northeastern Iowa.

In 2005, Nussle tucked language into an emergency war spending bill that channeled $12 million to the Rock Island Arsenal for "industrial mobilization capacity." Inconvenient, Democrats say, considering that Bush lashed out at Democrats for adding "pork projects" to last month's emergency Iraq spending bill.

Nussle's defenders say he acted like any other lawmaker -- and by heralding his successes has not undermined the president's demand for greater transparency regarding earmark requests.
"Any member of Congress would be proud of things that have to do with feathering their district," said White House budget office spokesman Sean Kevelighan. "If a member of Congress is writing press releases, they're not trying to hide much."


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