Dan Lungren

U.S. Rep. Dan Lungren's earmark of $5 million in federal money to be spent locally doesn't square with his vote against the Omnibus Appropriations Bill that would draw the cash, according to officials of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Lungren (R-Gold River) earmarked a list of money targets in the Third Congressional District, including funds for a Highway 88-Pine Grove Corridor Improvement project, to split nearly $5 million when and if the spending bill passes the full U.S. Congress.

Then he voted against the legislation. Lungren joined other Republicans in criticizing the breadth of the bill.

"It's hypocritical to seek funding in a bill and then vote against the bill when it comes up," said Andy Stone, regional press secretary for the Democratic committee.

Lungren said, "I would not apologize for any of those (earmarks), but I would give them up if the president had vetoed the bill. There were a lot of earmarks in there I don't think were justified."

Lungren said he would support a move to prohibit the practice of earmarking.

The Democratic committee lists Lungren as one of a dozen Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives targeted by a newly launched opposition push using an array of communications media, including e-mail. Each of the listed members of Congress cast "no" votes on both the omnibus bill and President Barack Obama's economic recovery bill. The recovery bill contains a large middle class tax cut. A campaign goal is to call to account the dozen listed members of Congress on the grounds that their votes are not responsive to the current economic crisis affecting the nation's lower and middle classes.

"In the short term, it's about holding them accountable regarding the economy," Stone said.

Republicans have pointed to many projects in the omnibus bill they say appear to be too thinly related to economic recovery. The bill contains a total of 9,287 earmark projects.

As for tax cuts, the Bush administration favored tax cuts for the nation's upper class, appealing to what is known as the "trickle down" theory of economic improvement.

Lungren said he should be looked upon not as having voted against the Obama recovery package, but as having voted for another bill, Republican-sponsored, that included tax cuts for small business owners.

"I voted for an alternative," Lungren said.

The DCCC also announced creation of a Recovery for America site on the Internet.

"(The site is) designed to educate people about the benefit of the economic recovery bill and how it will impact their district," the committee announced. "It includes an interactive map that illustrates the job creation and tax cuts by state."

Lungren said the Republican alternative has been estimated potentially to create twice the jobs of the Obama plan.