This morning I heard McCain railing about a few million dollars going to research on termites. You'd think someone who owns seven houses would want to prevent termite infestation. Not all earmarks are a "bridge to nowhere." Lots of these projects are needed. It's childish to assume, as McCain does, that all of them are throwing money away. Where termites are a problem is where houses need to be inspected before mortgage lenders will fund them.Here's what I don't understand about earmarks. How is it a bad thing to have earmarks in the stimulus package? An earmark is just a way to make sure specific funds are spent on specific things. Without earmarks there is no direction in order to accomplish the goals of the government. Without earmarks there wouldn't be any sort of unified effort in which the country acts as a whole with some direction from the top.
How would it be better to just give all this money to the states with no direction whatsoever on how to spend it? What would the point of that be? How would the government get anything done? If the administration builds a school, it's an earmark, bridge-earmark, highway-earmark, funding of an outreach program-earmark, and so on and so forth. Why are Republicans so afraid of doing things?
The earmarks add zero additional dollars to this budget. This is a stop-gap spending measure. McCain is grandstanding so as to not become insignificant. Over 6,300 earmarks are for $500,000 and less. And over 2,500 of these are under $200,000 so the number of earmarks may be alarming at first, but many of the money will be going to provide cash to local economies. Creating jobs. Isn't that the point?
It's one of the reasons I find leading Republicans hyperventilating over the earmarks more than a little disingenuous. McCain was ranting on the floor yesterday, blaming President Obama for earmarks McCain's fellow senators stuffed into the bill. Perhaps, before McCain castigates the White House, he can spend some time talking to his own Republican colleagues about their notion of fiscal responsibility. It does ring a little hollow that Republicans are yelling about the 9,000 earmarks when they are asking for 40 percent of them. Hello.
McCain must have forgot that the line item veto was repealed in 1997 by District Judge Harry Jackson, a Reagan appointee. So Obama could do it if he wanted, too.
He can start with his fellow Arizonian, Sen. Jon Kyl (R). It was Kyl who complained bitterly about spending in the stimulus package, which he described as "billions of dollars of earmarks and pork." It's the same Kyl who requested $118 million in earmarks in the omnibus bill. But you don't have a problem throwing money away for unnecessary wars, just spending it on what people need here.
Everybody wants their own earmarks, they just don't want anybody else to get theirs. Politicians are terrific at pointing out frivolous earmarks but very selective in their idea of frivolous.
You really can't safely stop a train quickly. I find it rather annoying that the GOP is screaming and wringing their hands over this the way they are, but hey, what do you expect? Hey, maybe what we really need are some more wealthy tax breaks. And another war or two. And then we can all just go shopping.
