{"id":1375259,"date":"2022-03-14T05:15:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-14T09:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1375259"},"modified":"2022-03-14T08:02:16","modified_gmt":"2022-03-14T12:02:16","slug":"earmark-porkfest-in-omnibus-bill-demonstrates-washington-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/earmark-porkfest-in-omnibus-bill-demonstrates-washington-corruption\/","title":{"rendered":"Earmark Porkfest In Omnibus Bill Demonstrates Washington Corruption"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fearmark-porkfest-in-omnibus-bill-demonstrates-washington-corruption%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1375259&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/15130327602_9bf5033ab6_k.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>As if the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/03\/10\/with-inflation-at-its-highest-in-decades-congress-works-to-shovel-trillions-more-out-the-door-in-a-craptastic-omnibus\/\">rushed process<\/a> that led to the passage of last week\u2019s omnibus spending legislation wasn\u2019t bad enough in itself, members of Congress had <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/597625-lawmakers-feast-on-pork-in-omnibus\">more than 4,000 reasons<\/a> not to vote for the spending bill, in the form of earmarks that made their return to Washington for the first time in a decade.<\/p>\n<p>The process late last week proved chaotic, even by congressional standards. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/03\/09\/congress-government-funding-package-00014322\">strip out additional Covid funding<\/a> because some House Democrats opposed paying for the spending by rescinding some of the hundreds of billions in federal <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/03\/23\/why-states-should-reject-democrats-bailout-funds\/\">bailout funds<\/a> pledged to states. On the plus side, however, the drama in Washington meant a delayed start to congressional Democrats\u2019 \u201cretreat\u201d (read: vacation) in Philadelphia, resulting in the cancellation of \u201ca performance by storied drag queen Lady Bunny\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/newsletters\/huddle\/2022\/03\/10\/dems-hoping-its-sunny-in-philadelphia-00016019\">seriously<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>But the <em>piece de resistance<\/em> of Washington corruption came with the return of earmarks\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/03\/09\/congress-government-funding-package-00014322\">367 pages of them<\/a>. At a time our nation faces <a href=\"https:\/\/fiscaldata.treasury.gov\/datasets\/debt-to-the-penny\/debt-to-the-penny\">$30 trillion in debt<\/a>\u2014not to mention rising inflation\u2014lawmakers saw fit to spend your money on things like $3 million for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/the-earmarks-return-do-they-ever-11647042054\">museum dedicated to the life of Mahatma Gandhi<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"gateway-drug-to-more-spending\"><strong>Gateway Drug to More Spending<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The problem comes not just from spending on such comparatively frivolous projects that local governments or non-profits can and should fund instead of Washington. The projects give lawmakers a reason to vote for otherwise extravagant and fiscally irresponsible legislation.<\/p>\n<p>Consider the words of Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, a senior appropriator, who <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20220309110612\/https:\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/03\/09\/congress-government-funding-package-00014322\">explained<\/a> how this pork provides lawmakers \u201ca specific micro-reason\u201d to support the legislation they hadn\u2019t had time to read: \u201cIt\u2019s easy to be opposed to things on a macro basis\u2026.And Member-directed spending allows you to have something you can go home with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In other words: The bill as a whole sucks, but vote for it because you got some federal funding for a teapot museum in your district. (Believe it or not, that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/tempest-over-a-teapot-museum\/\">actually happened<\/a>.) That logic turns legislating on its head, with a few million dollars of pork determining votes on a $1.5 <em>trillion<\/em> bill. It also means that lawmakers like Blunt are cheap dates, who can be \u201cbought off\u201d at a small price compared to the size of the entire legislation.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"don-t-empower-bureaucrats\"><strong>Don\u2019t Empower Bureaucrats<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>One <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/597625-lawmakers-feast-on-pork-in-omnibus\">argument<\/a> made by earmark supporters contains at least a bit of logic to it, if only on the surface: \u201cDefenders of earmarks argue that if lawmakers can\u2019t request earmarks, it gives executive branch officials disproportionate power to choose which projects get funded.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As someone who opposes giving power to unelected bureaucrats, this theory holds superficial appeal. But the true argument for limited government\u2014the one that pro-pork earmarkers dare not make\u2014reveals its specious nature. If lawmakers don\u2019t want to give unelected bureaucrats additional power, <em>they should lower federal spending<\/em>\u2014and reduce the federal workforce while they\u2019re at it.<\/p>\n<p>But appropriators never want to lower federal spending, because to do so would reduce their own power. Instead they hold up disingenuous straw men arguments to feather their own nests, by arrogating more power to themselves.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"invitation-to-corruption\"><strong>Invitation to Corruption<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Lest anyone forget, Congress banned earmarks a decade ago because of a series of scandals regarding earmarks and defense contracts that saw <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bob_Ney#Abramoff_scandal_timeline\">multiple<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Duke_Cunningham#Scandals_and_corruption\">members of Congress<\/a> plead guilty to corruption charges and spend time in jail. Earmark supporters claim that \u201creforms\u201d making the projects\u2019 sponsors transparent will prevent a recurrence of these scandals. But why should anyone think that a process that almost by definition involves a <em>quid pro quo<\/em>\u2014vote for this spending bill and I\u2019ll direct pork programs to your district\u2014can function on the up-and-up?<\/p>\n<p>The obvious answer is that it can\u2019t. If Republicans really want to reform Washington, they should pledge that, should they win back control of either house of Congress in the November elections, they will end the return of earmarks almost as quickly as they began. If they can\u2019t even take this minor step to restore their reputation regarding out-of-control federal spending, then the party doesn\u2019t much deserve the chance to govern.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Chris Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, and author of the book, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1645720020\">The Case Against Single Payer<\/a>.&#8221; He is on Twitter: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/chrisjacobshc\">@chrisjacobsHC<\/a>. Previously he was a senior health policy analyst for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a senior policy analyst in The Heritage Foundation\u2019s Center for Health Policy Studies, and a senior policy analyst with the Joint Economic Committee\u2019s Senate Republican staff. During the debate over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, Jacobs was a policy adviser for the House Republican Conference under then-Chairman Mike Pence. In the first two years of the law\u2019s implementation, he was a health policy analyst for the Senate Republican Policy Committee. Jacobs got his start on Capitol Hill as an intern for then-Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). He holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in political science and history from American University, where he is a part-time teacher of health policy. He currently resides in Washington, D.C.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As if the rushed process that led to the passage of last week\u2019s omnibus spending legislation wasn\u2019t bad enough in itself, members of Congress had more than 4,000 reasons not<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1375259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1375259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1375259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1375259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1375259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}