Do you believe the Republicans want to cut Federal spending?

From an article in The New York Times: Republican Congressman Harold Rogers, now the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, added an earmark to a 2009 spending bill requiring the DOD to buy steel "'leakproof' drip pans in the last three years to catch transmission fluid on Black Hawk helicopters." The drip pans would keep oil from splashing passengers in the helicopters, apparently more securely than the original plastic drip pans.

Mr. Rogers said in a statement. “These dripping pans help accomplish both of these goals.” (Emphasis added to illustrate the Congressman's expertise on "dripping pans".

"As of October, the Army had bought 374 drip pans from Phoenix Products at an average cost of $17,000." "(A) similar pan from another company costs a small fraction of the price: about $2,500."

The company’s owners are political contributors to the congressman, who has been called the “Prince of Pork” by The Lexington Herald-Leader for his history of delivering federal contracts to donors and others back home..........The company has paid at least $600,000 since 2005 to a Washington lobbying firm, Martin Fisher Thompson & Associates, to represent its interests on federal contracting issues, records show. 

Mr. Rogers, in turn, has been a strong supporter of the manufacturer. He has directed more than $17 million in work orders for Phoenix Products since 2000.