Allentown – Last night, Congressman Joe Sestak proved once and for all his hypocrisy on earmark reform.
 
For months, Congressman Sestak has claimed to oppose the corrupt and wasteful earmark system, even posting on his campaign website: “Joe favors eliminating all earmarks from the appropriations process.”
 
Last night, Congressman Sestak had an opportunity to live up to his own words and save taxpayers millions of dollars.  What did he do?
 
He slapped Pennsylvania taxpayers in the face.
 
Congressman Jeff Flake (AZ-06) offered four amendments to strip some of the most wasteful earmarks and save taxpayer dollars, but Congressman Sestak voted to force taxpayers to pay for each one of them:
 
$1 million for a bikeway in Rhode Island (RC #495, 07/29/10)
$1 million for a downtown streetscape in Washington (RC #496, 07/29/10)
$1 million for the Darwin Martin House in New York (RC #497, 07/29/10)
$1 million for a playground in Puerto Rico (RC #498, 07/29/10)
 
Congressman Sestak: please explain why Pennsylvania working families should pay millions of dollars for bike paths and streetscapes in other states.
 
“It is bad enough that Congressman Sestak votes repeatedly to waste taxpayer dollars on wasteful pork projects, but it is all the more egregious that Congressman Sestak pretends to support earmark reform on the campaign trail,” said Toomey Communications Director Nachama Soloveichik.  “Congressman Sestak talks about honesty, transparency, and accountability, but he consistently refuses to live up to his own standards.  Pennsylvanians deserve better than Joe Sestak’s hypocrisy.”

This entry was posted on Friday, July 30th, 2010 at 8:05 am and is filed under Front Page Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.