From the Sauerberg for U.S. Senate campaign:
(Springfield, IL) - "The career politicians like Dick Durbin are addicted to wasteful pork barrel spending, and its time for them to kick the habit," said U.S. Senate nominee Steve Sauerberg, M.D. "Dick Durbin should support common sense efforts to enact a one year moratorium on wasteful earmark spending in the U.S. Senate."
This week, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) announced plans to offer an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Resolution that will impose a year-long moratorium on congressional earmarks. "Last year, Dick Durbin and his friends in Congress passed out nearly 12,000 earmarks that cost the American taxpayer more than $17 billion," continued Sauerberg. "It is time to end this shameful special interest shell game."
According to Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), a good government watchdog group, Senator Durbin has one of the worst records in the Senate on controlling wasteful spending. In 2006, Senator Durbin received a 15% on the CAGW scorecard and was rated "hostile" to taxpayers.
"This earmark shell game doesn't work for Illinoisans," said Sauerberg. "Dick Durbin has turned Illinois into America's ATM, as taxpayers here are forced to foot the bill for wasteful projects across the country. It's pathetic that Durbin has allowed our state to rank 5th worst on the return of federal dollars that we send to Washington."
"Sadly, the American people have lost faith in our elected leaders in Washington," said Sauerberg. "They have lost faith because they know that instead of fighting for them, career politicians like Dick Durbin are instead working to dole out money to their special interest friends and then pass the costs of this wasteful spending back to hardworking taxpayers."
"It is time to end politics as usual in Washington. It is time for our leaders in Washington to take steps to restore the faith and confidence of the American people," concluded Sauerberg. "A critical first step on this path is supporting this common sense one year ban on wasteful earmarks."
