An Excerpt from Richard Viguerie's Conservatives Betrayed:

We cannot look to Democrats and liberals for a solution to runaway government. Unfortunately, we have also seen—in the years since 2000—that we cannot look to the Republicans, either, for a solution to runaway government. The only times we have made any progress against the growth of Big Government have been under divided government:

* With conservative President Ronald Reagan in the White House forcing the Democrats in control of Congress to cut back on discretionary domestic spending, and…
* With a conservative Republican Congress rejecting the bulk of the spending sprees proposed by President Bill Clinton

But if Americans cannot look to either Democrats or Republicans for leadership in controlling runaway government, where are they to turn?

There is only one place to turn, and that's to the people who truly believe in fiscal responsibility—conservatives. In turn, conservatives should stop concentrating their efforts on partisan games, and take their case directly to the public. We should stop sparing our criticism of the GOP, even though, in recent years, it is the party that most conservatives have called home. And we have to start from Square One in educating the public about the seriousness of the problem.

Certainly there are plenty of things that can be done to rein in federal spending; conservative think tanks, political groups, and politicians have been developing strategies and specific legislation for years. The problem hasn't been a lack of answers, but a lack of will in Congress. In educating the public, though, we need to bring these ideas and approaches to everyone's attention.

Here is one of the approaches and solutions we need to demand:

Demand that government go on a pork-free diet. The truth is, much bigger cuts than pork need to be enacted, but this is a start that resonates with the public, so it will get our campaign going on a positive track. And it will cut more than $40 billion from the budget.

We must demand an end to earmarks and propose structural reforms of Congress to keep this from being a recurring problem. And we must demand that the President veto any spending bills that include earmarks. Send them back to Congress and tell them you'll sign them into law only when the earmarks are deleted. If a project is worth funding, it can survive the regular legislative process and cost-benefit scrutiny.

A good place to start hunting for pork is the Congressional Pig Book published by Citizens Against Government Waste (http://cagw.org).