Tea Party leaders in both the House and Senate have come out strong after Mitch McConnell’s call to ban all earmarks with Sen. Jim DeMint calling it the beginning a cultural change in Washington.
“Parochial, wasteful, pork barrel earmarks have been wasting money for years and it’s kept out focus on local parking garages,” said DeMint on CBS. “I think this is the beginning of a cultural change away from the culture of spending.”
In a possible sign of the end of times, DeMint said Republicans could be willing to work with President Obama who has also come out in favor of earmark legislation recently.
“I think it could be something we work together on. We need to look everywhere to cut spending and this is a great place to start,” said DeMint.
DeMint said he was introducing legislation to the Senate on Tuesday to keeping the tax cuts implemented by President George W. Bush permanent.
On the House side, the Tea Party caucus leader Rep. Michele Bachmann said the direction taken by Republican leaders was a “very good sign” for voters, who had called for real change in Washington in the 2010 midterms.
Bachmann, who dropped her bid for a party leadership position last week, said the recent push to ban ear marks is proof positive of the movement’s success — even if it wasn’t the personal one she had recently campaigned for.
“I think the leadership has sent a very strong signal that they have listened and they’ve woke up and they want to do right by the American people,” said Bachmann on ABC. “The main thing here is that they want to stick to fiscal sanity.