The term earmark comes from the practice of marking the ears of livestock for identification, yet in American politics it has come to mean money that is "set aside for a special project or purpose": AKA pet projects, pork. As I'm sure that animals are not thrilled by this procedure, I am more confident that Congress and their frivolous spending outrages the American people.
According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, an independent watchdog organization states "widespread earmarking is a relatively new phenomenon in American politics, which gained momentum in the 1970's". Pork in a bill in Congress is as common as a hot dog at a football game. Moreover there continues to be a rise in pork barrel spending and there is no getting around it; both Republicans and Democrats are part of this Congressional excess and waste.
During the first presidential debate Senator John McCain and then Senator Barack Obama argued over the earmark issue, and Obama pledged, "Absolutely, we need earmark reform. And when I'm president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely." Hold your applause please; I'm just getting started!
Considering the White House continues to proclaim that "we are in the worst economic crisis since the great depression", why does Congress keep spending money on flippant projects. It's one thing to spend money when we are flying high in prosperity, but when we are drowning in debt, it doesn't make sense.
Any intelligent American household would have enough common sense to cut out the "extra stuff" when they are facing dire financial times; why doesn't Washington? Are they that ignorant, unwilling or are they just self-serving?
We started 2009 spending; when Congress passed the urgent $800 billion Economic Stimulus Package claiming that it would create jobs and save our economy. Almost a year later and as we continue to await the arrival of our jobs, we do know that the White House Recovery.gov website, which costs over 18 million dollars to renovate, reported that thousands of jobs were saved in Congressional Districts that don't exist. Not to mention that stimulus checks were sent out to dead people and inmates. But, that’s another story.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Ruvy
Christine,
The stupid pigs in power do not listen to the people. All they understand is when they die from getting shot at - this goes for all the pigs - in the government, the media, the farty academics, big business execs, the lot of them.
You folks will have to do better than ballots - bullets are the ticket. You have sunk that low, Christine. Sorry to say that, but it is true.
2 - Christine
Auuuhhhh, Ruvy. I already feel pessimistic about my country these days (don't like guns). But I will never give up on REAL hope.
How are things going in Israel?
3 - roger nowosielski
There's no longer any hope to be associated with America, Christine. The sooner you'll realize that, the healing process will begin.
4 - Christine
lol, Roger
5 - Ruvy
How are things going in Israel?
Christine;
Things in Israel are economically better (than the States) - politically worse.
Put simply, we are one bullet away from civil war.
6 - Jordan Richardson
why does Congress keep spending money on flippant projects
What you consider to be a "flippant project," others consider to be projects capable of creating jobs and generating income over the long haul. That is the design, anyway. In my country, Stephen Harper (the CONSERVATIVE leader) told Canadians that his government was going to "spend their way out of the recession." And guess what? They did.
I realize that the symptoms of the recession differ from nation to nation, but I also realize that you have to spend money to make money in this economy and I realize that things almost always get worse before they get better. Standing back and doing nothing but cutting taxes will not serve as a solution to any problem afflicting the United States right now, nor will loosening regulations on corporations intent on their own profits alone.
The American people, some of them anyway, have become so deathly afraid of the solutions that they want to just stick their heads in the sand and forget about it. People have, for good reason, given up hope. But along with giving up hope, people have remained stagnant blobs of consumption, mindlessly feeding themselves intellectual garbage from television's talking heads while funneling money into corporations that hire cheap Chinese and Indian labour overseas and illegal immigrants domestically.
And the government, big or small or liberal or conservative or democrat or republican, isn't going to crack this egg anytime soon because it works for them. The whole notion of lobbying and public interests works for these guys and it always has. These private interests, the ones responsible for the entire idea of earmarking and pork and all that other crap, continue to be the single loudest voice in political issues. They, the politicians, follow the money. They will betray you, endlessly, until the end of time.
Ruvy, who has the audacity to promote civil war in his country, suggests the solution is a bullet. He suggests that the streets should run red in an ultimate display of morality, crudeness and dishonour. But that rhetoric is only for those who share his foulness.
The real solution is to learn to speak with your dollars, not your votes (especially when there are only two choices, so you're told). Learn not to prop up the corporations who are intent on catching the whores of Washington in the back alleys and shoveling them a cart full of money for tacit approval on a host of repugnant issues. We, the consumers and the customers, have the power to cripple the whole damn thing if we want to. But we're too intent on violent rhetoric, busying ourselves with mindless garbage and filling our bodies with wasteful, poisonous food.
Real change never comes from the government. Never. Ever. Putting your hope in that conception, thinking everything will be alright if only "my politician" gets elected, is a fool's game. And most Americans, worshipful as they are of their history and their politics, continue to play.
I think it's time the American people stopped putting their faith in government, in "grassroots movements" backed by corporate interests, and in corporations who only care about profits. I think it's time the American people started to realize that a government is the people and that it can be. This isn't about a winning political philosophy or a creed or a belief or a "side." This is about justice, morality and truth.
Dramatic language aside, happy holidays.
7 - Christine
Sorry to hear that Ruvy, about the civil war thing, glad to know you are doing better economically.
Jordan, thanks for your commentary. And Happy Holidays to you!
8 - Mark
It's time for folks to get familiar with this and its history. Why have the Democrats been avoiding this approach?
Christine, I read this formulaic gripe piece looking for proposed reforms or at least a more or less clear statement of what's wrong with earmarks. Taxing and spending is in Congress' job description, and they've worked out this fast and dirty way to 'get 'er done' in something approaching a timely fashion. How do you suggest that they restructure the process?
Redistributing dough in order to keep the cogs of business lined up and discontent under control is certainly a dirty job that lends itself to corruption.
Jordan says, The real solution is to learn to speak with your dollars, not your votes... Another practical thing to do is to 'learn to speak' with your labor, choosing who you are willing to sell it to with care and conscience.
9 - Christine
Mark, I'm not a politician only a citizen who gets tired of the bs coming out of Congress. So, I'm not sure how to change it, but it needs to be changed no matter who's in office.
10 - Mark
...it needs to be changed no matter who's in office.
why?
11 - Christine
because the spending is out of control!
12 - roger nowosielski
Made a posting, Mark, on the old thread. Check it out.
13 - Mark
What percentage of the budget do earmarks make up? Are they really such a problem? Would eliminating them all bring spending under control or even significantly move the budget in that direction?
14 - Mark
Roger, Roger...(I've waited many moons for such an opportunity.)
15 - Clavos
Roger, Roger...(I've waited many moons for such an opportunity.)
You need to set your sights higher, horse man...
16 - Christine
Mark, even if the percentage is around 2 percent (not sure exactly), it still adds up to billions of dollars. I thinks billions is a lot of money, don't you?
And as I made the point in the article, when we are in prosperous times it may be okay, but when we are in "dire" financial straights, that would be a time to tighten the budget. Don't you think?
17 - Mark
Gotta take pleasure where one can these days, nails.
18 - Mark
I thinks billions is a lot of money, don't you?
no
The thing to do now that we find ourselves in dire financial straights...again...is --
19 - Ruvy
Ruvy, who has the audacity to promote civil war in his country, suggests the solution is a bullet. He suggests that the streets should run red in an ultimate display of morality, crudeness and dishonour. But that rhetoric is only for those who share his foulness.
Jordan, save your smears for someone who deserves them. America had the possibility of producing itself out of a recession in March 2000. But its leaders chose not to, and did nothing while the idiots of the Republocrats fought out a presidential campaign - probably the first of what will be a series of stolen elections in the States. Each election will look more and more phony, until the American voters realize that they are all bullshit The bankers on Wall Street covered up the problems by selling garbage, and a whole series of "bubbles" got created in the American economy - a housing bubble, credit bubble, etc.
The bubbles have all burst, and first Bush, and then Obama printed money out of nothing to attempt to cover up the crash that was on the way. In addition, the government took over a whole series of industries, creating a fascist state in America.
The Americans are broke, Jordan. Their system consists of one political party that has two heads which bite each other - and Americans delude themselves that they have a two party system and a democracy. This is why the ballot is worthless in the United States today. It represents nothing.
Your solution, well meaning as it is, relies on something that soon will have no value - the dollar. So, it too, is worthless.
That leaves those with gold holdings who will survive - and those who have no gold holdings, who in order to survive will have to steal the gold from those who have it. For that you need a bullet, not a ballot. That is how and why you get a civil war. The basic issue will be the gulf between the "haves" and the "have-nots" and the demand of the "have-nots" that they be allowed their crust of bread. That is what America, the land of my birth, the land that was the richest on the planet when I was a kid, the land I loved as a child, is headed for. It is cold, harsh and damned simple.
Bottom line: if you cannot produce your way out of a recession, you will never get out of it. Full stop.
My country's fate is connected to America's only so long as America is not seen completely for the whore and pauper she has become. But when that is clear, my country's fate will separate from that of America, and we will have to face our own problems. And we in Israel are sleepwalking towards a civil war. That is not your business, though.
20 - Jordan Richardson
I thinks billions is a lot of money, don't you?
Depends. Does the spending of billions of dollars help enrich the lives of the majority of the population? Or is it wasteful, nonsensical and immoral spending?
The issue isn't how much is being spent or how big the government is. It ought to be how effective the government is and how effective the spending is.
when we are in "dire" financial straights, that would be a time to tighten the budget. Don't you think?
Stimulus packages work when they are effective, efficient and well-planned. Whether the government's stimulus is such remains to be seen, but the very principle that you repeat isn't particularly true given the potential variables.
What is the point of this sort of stimulus spending, this sort of industry and infrastructure boosting, in "prosperous times?" The only time I'd want to organize government intervention of any fiscal kind would be when we need it, not when times are great.
So, Christine, I'd rethink the core ideology behind this article and indeed behind your brand of conservatism. We live in a world where spending through a deficit is common, especially for the world's richest countries, and where stimulating the economy through effective spending works to create jobs and boost industry.
If things are merely tightened, how will that help draw money, business, trade and consumers into the economy again? It seems to me that such an approach is more likely to keep things right as they are rather than to change things for the better.
Further to this, any sort of stimulus impact should be measured and scrutinized by the public relentlessly. The government should be spending, but the people should be demanding to know where every red cent is going to ensure that money is not being spent on executive salaries and bonuses or on frivolous crap to line corporate pockets.
We need to give people the ability and the right to be healthy, educated, prosperous and happy. A well-spent billion or two could easily promote this, but the reality is that no U.S. government will spend money this way as long as the population continues their limp approval of the status quo.
21 - Christine
Well if you all think that $1.8 million for swine odor and manure management in Iowa, $190,000 for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Wyoming, $400,000 to combat bullying in Montana and $2.2 million to study grape genetics in New York, is worthy of taxpayer dollars (and the ones McCain talked about), then more power to Ya.
22 - roger nowosielski
"This isn't about a winning political philosophy or a creed or a belief or a "side." This is about justice, morality and truth." (#6)
True in principle, but do we put this into practice, Jordan? Care to elaborate because that's a multi-million dollar question.
How do we overcome the institutional resistance, inertia, the people's apathy? Perhaps the picture is less depressing in Canada. You are more or less united and imbued with a certain sense of solidarity and identity as a people. I think you underestimate the extent to which things aren't so here.
Aside from diverse cultural differences (blacks vs. whites, e.g.), Americans have always been individualistic rather than group-oriented. Perhaps there was a time to develop a sense of solidarity and togetherness while prosperity was around the corner and everyone more or less believed they could share in the American Dream. But corporate and commercial interests had seen to it that the bubble would be burst, and now people are disenchanted and divided along cultural, ethnic, and socio-cultural lines. Bitterness and divisiveness are the prominent characteristics of American political and social life. Just look at BC: it's a microcosm.
23 - Jordan Richardson
Ruvy's panicked assessment is, as usual, constructed on a foundation of hyperbole and chaotic obsessiveness.
The Americans are broke, Jordan.
Depends on who you're referring to. The United States still boasts the largest national economy in the world and stably grows in GDP even with the same percentage of debt as most major European countries. They also rank second, down one spot thanks to the recession, in the Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum.
So things aren't all bad for the United States and it certainly isn't time to start blowing the Third World alarm. To suggest that America is broke is a rather simplistic and inaccurate assessment of the nation's position in the world as a whole.
Americans, however, are getting broke while corporations, energy companies and governments get richer. This is because Americans allow it, as I've outlined over and over and over again.
Their system consists of one political party that has two heads which bite each other - and Americans delude themselves that they have a two party system and a democracy. This is why the ballot is worthless in the United States today. It represents nothing.
I think I said the exact same thing.
Your solution, well meaning as it is, relies on something that soon will have no value - the dollar. So, it too, is worthless.
But it isn't. When consumer spending makes up for well over 70% of the country's economic activity, the dollar in the consumer's pocket is incredibly meaningful. Where and how it is spent is incredibly meaningful. Dismissing this simple little fact would be an error.
In fact, consumer spending in 2009 started off at an unprecedented rate and rose higher than expected through the summer. This happened even while incomes dropped, again demonstrating the desire of Americans to consume and spend no matter what's going on. Again, this further supports the idea that consumer spending is incredibly meaningful given the big picture. The dollar is not worthless given these spending figures.
That leaves those with gold holdings who will survive
A boneheaded "theory" floated by the conspiracy nuts, ie. Glenn Beck, and those with interest in the gold market. There's no realistic indication to suggest that "gold" will be worth anything in its raw state with respect to spending, consumption or reliability.
It is cold, harsh and damned simple.
It is a lunatic theory floated by the most far-out pundits and wannabe analysts with no economic backing whatsoever. There will be no "gold rush," there will be no civil war over gold, there will be no bulleted solution. Full stop.
24 - roger nowosielski
Christine,
I think Mark's point is that we're so down and out that we've started looking at trivia, like a drowning man grasping at straw. We're plagued with systemic weaknesses and stresses to which there is no one simple remedy.
We need a new bio.
25 - Jordan Richardson
$1.8 million for swine odor and manure management in Iowa
1. That's peanuts.
2. Does it employ people?
3. Manure management is important for a number of reasons, the least of which being that nobody likes shit piled up all over the place and the most important of which being that it makes for damn good fertilizer which, in turn, helps the damn crops.
This isn't rocket science.
$190,000 for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Wyoming
How much money could this Center drum up in tourist and visitor dollars? $190,000 could be chicken feed in relation to the profits involved.
$400,000 to combat bullying in Montana
Sounds like a pretty good idea to me, as bullying sucks. What measures does this money afford?
$2.2 million to study grape genetics in New York
The wine industry can be pretty important and can be a nice little profit generator.
All of those ideas sound pretty good to me, actually. What bothers you about them, Christine?