Through One Earmark And Out The Other

When the new Democratic Congress convenes for the first time they should eradicate the anonymous earmarking process. For any member of Congress to be allowed to throw in attachments to bills in the 23rd hour before a bill is voted on is ludicrous. And it seems ironic that a Democratic Congress not a Republican one is going to tackle this issue. In fact the stereotypes between Republicans and Democrats contradict reality.

During the past thirty years, when a Democratic President held office the deficit went down but for nearly every Republican the deficit went up and now it is at a record high, dispelling the myth that Republicans stand for less government spending. More fat has been added to bills in the last ten years than in any other time. And according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, the biggest culprit is our military, who sent 1.7 million to help keep brown tree snakes in Guam. Many of these earmarks are passed without any of the members of Congress reading them. It is a fairly quiet secret that Senators rarely read the bills that they vote on.

Earmarks have their legitimate role in the bill process but without any accountability or oversight over where our tax dollars are going is unethical, which gives the outgoing Republican controlled Congress another black eye because they won control by vowing to restore ethical values and morality to Washington.

There has been a push to pass some legislation to combat earmarks. The Lobbying Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 passed the house but in the end the two houses could not agree on the issues of the 527 groups, which is a loophole to create large sums of money for individual political campaigns. A candidate can only except a personal check of $1,000 but if they set up a politician 527, they can except huge sums of cash from corporations and unions.

Earmarks and campaign contributions are the two hands that shake. The corporations contribute the money and help get the Senator elected and then in return get an earmark placed anonymously to benefit the contributor. This backdoor dealing must be stopped.

The light has been turned on and with the transparency bill likely to passed by the Democratic Congress, America can see which Senators are sneaking in late at night and sticking their hands into the cookie jar.