Duo both fear red ink

Matheson said the Blue Dogs stand ready and barking to work with conservative Republicans in a coalition, if necessary.

"The Blue Dogs are willing to work with anybody in either party if it will bring about fiscal responsibility," he said. "The president says he wants to cut the deficit by 50 percent in five years, but where's his plan? We'll work with him, but we haven't seen his plan yet."

Utah's delegation generally scores well on the various scales of fiscal responsibility.

However, the National Taxpayers Union, a conservative think tank advocating fiscal restraint, analyzed the voting records of all members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, including Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah. Using a mathematical ranking formula, with the lower the number indicating greater fiscal responsibility, analyst Sam Batkins found that senators touting their fiscal responsibility soon shed their aversion to spending once they were assigned to the powerful committee.

Bennett had a ranking of 24 during his freshman year in the Senate. During his first year on appropriations, the ranking soared to 39, the third highest among the 12 Republicans considered in the study. It was still better than any of the Democrats in the study.

Bennett has made no bones that he is proud of the Utah projects he has funded and he defends the merits of each project.

Last session, Bennett boasted he had secured roughly $250 million for Utah construction projects, scientific research at Utah universities and an assortment of other projects some might consider pork.

But there's nothing on par with the funding for a rain forest park in Iowa that has gained the attention of pork-barrel watchdogs.

Bennett's spokeswoman Mary Jane Collipriest called the National Taxpayers Union study "a bit skewed," pointing out that Bennett has reduced discretionary spending by $1 billion since he assumed the chairmanship of the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee two years ago.

Matheson certainly doesn't see a problem with the Utah projects.

"I know I will fight for I-15 expansion with a clear conscience," he said. "Maybe it gets lumped in with the Iowa rain forest by some people, but it is the role of Congress to look out for home districts."

Bennett isn't as worried about the deficit as his House colleagues, although "the deficit is considerable in dollar terms and certainly not something to ignore," he said.

The best measurement of the deficit, he said, is to evaluate it as a percentage of gross domestic product. And in that light it is still lower as a percentage than levels reached in the 1980s and early 1990s.

"A growing economy remains the key to reducing the deficit and, as the economic expansion we've experienced since 2003 continues, 16 straight months of job growth and continued increases in GDP, the deficit will remain manageable and most likely continue to shrink," he said.

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E-mail: spang@desnews.com