The Siren Call of Earmarks

Congress has made it easy to include earmarks in bills; its members consider them vital to re-election. Despite righteous sounding denunciations by members of both parties, they continue unabated. Almost 9,000 of them are included in the Omnibus Bill, now being voted on in the Senate. Obama, who once promised to eliminate all earmarks, is prepared to approve the measure no matter how many are in it.

Why are they so popular? Most of them fund civic projects back home with federal dollars. Probably many of these projects are desirable, although we never know since the money is appropriated without any discussion or anyone’s knowledge other than the supporting legislator. They are the natural result of the growing federalism in our country as more and more people look to the federal government to solve national, local, and personal problems. After all, it is the “Feds” who have the deep pockets; state and local governments are less wealthy, since they’re subject to more scrutiny by the taxpayers.

At this point in our political climate, referring to states’ rights or state autonomy is to invite ridicule. But these state and local projects are best handled by state and local authorities and best funded by state and local taxes. If that were to happen, more discussion and more refinement of each project would take place, eliminating at least some waste in the process, not to mention the inevitable loss of money as it travels from the taxpayer to the federal government, then back to the states.

There is a “novel concept” that would save us all a ton of money – pay attention to Tenth Amendment and quit jeering at states’ rights. Continued morphing into centralized power will only lead to further loss of freedoms, as well as increased government waste.