Congressional Pork Fest:The Earmark Favor Factory
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Parade Magazine–Last month, Congress passed a 3,500-page omnibus spending bill after less than 24 hours for review. The bill, which mostly renewed funding for existing programs, contained more than 9,000 “earmarks”—worth at least $7.4 billion—for legislators’ pet projects, including:
The real problem with earmarks, says Rep. Jeff Flake (R., Ariz.), is that “they circumvent the normal process,” since they typically are placed in bills without discussion. Thus, lawmakers never get to debate them and find out if they’re genuinely necessary—or just more pork.
(HT: NCPA)
See a related WSJ article “MURTHA INC.: How A Lawmaker Rebuilt Hometown on Earmarks,” about the top Congressional earmarkers (see list above), and the #1 Leader of the Pork, Rep. John Murtha.
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