Chris Weigant: Bringing Back Earmarks

[Algernon Moncrieff]

Complete article at link

Defending earmarks is hard to do, which is one reason why they were banned back then, even though the Republican leadership in Congress was not in favor of getting rid of the practice. A vote to keep earmarks was seen (by the Tea Party, especially) as a vote to continue Washington's spending spree. Earmarks were seen in a bad light, as "backroom deals" that were one short step from outright bribery.

Perhaps this impression is true, but perhaps a few backroom deals would have greased the skids in Congress enough to pass a few necessary bills. Even if you call earmarks outright bribes (using taxpayer dollars, no less), maybe a little bribery isn't such a bad thing.

Earmarks, in case anyone is unaware, are specific carve-outs in the budget. Instead of passing $100 billion for an executive department's budget, a few million here and there would be marked off for very specific projects in the home districts of certain congressmen. This was known as "bringing home the bacon" among the political chattering class. House members got sent to Washington to protect the interests of their district, and they'd come through with some highway funds or money to build some other project. Was some of this money wasted? Sure. Building (just to make one up) a museum for exotic fungi in Lower Foontville isn't exactly the most pressing federal business of the day. But somebody's got to build the Toadstool Museum, which means local jobs in construction. And then a few jobs maintaining and staffing the museum, for the long term.

Congressmen outraged over bloated federal budgets used to routinely point out how silly some of these projects were. Again, perhaps rightly. But if the new museum boosted Lower Foontville's economy a bit (and the entire Foont County economy to boot), then the people affected would remember who secured the money come election time. Without earmarks, it is a lot tougher for any politician to point to a project and say "I made that happen."

[Gothmog]

1. Earmarks were the tool used to enforce party discipline

Without earmarks, it is harder to get people to be bipartisan and for the party leadership to enforce discipline. Due to the complete collapse of the effectiveness of Congress, it may be time to bring back earmarks.