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January 04, 2010

Earmarks and empty promises

By CREW Staff

Earmarks, Ethics, News, Washington Post, States, Pennsylvania, House Members, John Murtha

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) is widely known as Congress' king of earmarks, and he often justifies them as his way of creating jobs. However, in this recent article, the Washington Post points out that most of the projects created through Rep. Murtha's earmarks fall short of the job-creation promises that were made:

Of 16 local companies the congressman has helped win federal earmarks, 10 have generated far fewer jobs than forecast, and half of those already have closed operations in his district. Murtha's strategy yielded some successes too. Four firms have expanded dramatically with the aid of earmarks, notably Concurrent Technologies Corp., which after more than a dozen years of earmarks has grown to employ 800 in Johnstown and now wins competitively bid contracts.

The Post analysis illustrates the fleeting success of some of the companies backed by earmarks. Some of the jobs generated by Murtha's earmarks cost about $2 million each, and scores disappeared as soon as projects were completed.

So, even if you set aside the ethical issues involved in the process of earmarking, the Murtha earmarks have not created the number of jobs that had been predicted -- and many of those jobs didn't last long.