Tea Party-backed GOP freshmen pack defense bill with pork
None of the projects were included in the defense budget submitted to Congress by the Obama administration.
For example, freshman GOP Rep. Bobby Shilling put in $2.5 million for weapons and munitions advanced technology for the Quad City Manufacturing Lab at Rock Island Arsenal, which just happens to be in his district.
During his campaign against Democrat Phil Hare last year, Schilling criticized Hare for adding money to defense budgets for the same facility.
GOP frosh Vicky Hartzler of Missouri packed the bill with $20 million for “mixed conventional load capability for Air Force bombers,” for Whiteman Air Force Base in her district.
Hartlzler backed the GOP moratorium on earmarks during her campaign. Now she says she didn’t think the moratorium applied to defense spending.
Republican Steven Palazzo used anti-pork barrel spending rhetoric and tea party backing to beat Democratic conservative Gene Taylor in Mississippi. He added $10 million to buy land to expand a National Guard facility in his district and another $19.9 million to “ship preliminary design and feasibility studies” at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula — also part of his district.