President Obama needs to have a "fireside chat" .. to define things to the people

[SoCalDem]

He needs to explain...in DETAIL, just what "an earmark" IS, and take to "buzz-wordiness" away from it..

In short, they work this way,,

a pol runs for election, and in every small town he/she visits, they "hit" on a local issue.. a power plant, a sewer system, a bad road, school repairs, etc.

They make promises, in exchange for votes..

IF they get elected, they know they will have to face these people again, the next time around, so whenever there's a bill to be passed, they try their darnedest to "slip these little promises" into whatever bill they can. They do it at some peril, because sooner or later someone will notice, and it's pretty easy to figure out "whodunit", so they get pro-active about it, but finding out what the OTHER legislators' wish lists contain, and they "trade".. "you support mine, and I'll support yours"..

A junior high school repair in Minnetonka, MN, is not something that the whole senate will legislate, BUT that $290K expense "can" be slipped into existing legislation, and used to go unnotoced..escept for the people in Minnetonka who have to work at and go to school at that place, or the ones who were hired to fix it.. Those are voters.

Earmarks are everywhere, and they have been used/done FOREVER..and they will not go away easily. There is nothing inherently subversive about them , unless your brother-in-law's company is the one chosen to do the actual school repairs.

They are used as wedges these days.. A democratic senator slips in an earmark for a bridge repair in Ohio, and a republican senator from Oklahoma has kittens over it, BUT his own earmark for red-dirt research is then called out as being "porky" too. The beauty & wisdom of the earmark, is entirely in the eye of the beholder

In a perfect world, every state would have a laundry list of desired "earmarks", posted online...and next to it, a total amount of money alloted to that state. Excel could handle the math. These could be completely excised from legislation, and could be seen by all.

[madinmaryland]

1. I think maybe he needs to put things in perspective. There is far

much more money wasted in "no-bid" contracts for the military industrial complex than all of the earmark. Obama is starting to go after the no-bid contracts. Earmarks are just a diversion from the real problems. No need for Obama to stoop to the level of the reich wingers.

[SoCalDem]

2. Explaining takes the "stoop" away:)

republicans love buzzwords.. they yell EARMARK & people THINK something entirely "bad"..

like partial birth abortion
death tax

and sooooo many others.

the actual definition of terms ends up being NOTHING like the shorthand monikers the republicans give the issues, and once people have it explained to them, they UNDERSTAND..

[madinmaryland]

3. What's interesting is Obama is not falling for the tricks of the republic party.

He seems to be staying away from the "buzzword" issues of that party.