By Editorial Staff, Colorado Springs Gazette, December 31, 2007
31 Dec 2007 // One of the reasons -- although probably a minor one compared with the Iraq war -- the Democrats took control of Congress in the elections last year was the proliferation of earmarks, those personalized spending projects tailored for specific congressional districts that are thrown in at the last minute, without having been requested in the president's budget and without congressional hearings to provide even the pretense of conscientious oversight. Having the Republicans on the ropes for the profligate spending on their watch, the newly empowered Democrats promised to get such pork-barrel spending under control.
But pork is a bipartisan joy for the people who govern us. To be sure, the names of members of Congress who requested earmarks were attached to the spending programs this year, so there was a modicum of accountability. And the total spending on earmarks was reduced. But there were more earmarks in this year's budget -- 11,043 -- than in fiscal year 2006, when there were 9,963 earmark projects.
Among them were $500,000 for the Los Banos bypass in Merced County, Calif., $300,000 for a child development center in Wewitchka, Fla., and $300,000 for exhibits in Illinois to commemorate the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Then there was $824,000 for developing alternative salmon products, whatever those are, and $7.5 million to stage the Special Olympics in Boise, Idaho.
The Hill, the newspaper that follows Congress, carried a banner headline the day after
the omnibus budget bill was passed: "An Earmark Christmas."
Perhaps most dismaying is the lack of even a residual sense of shame. "I can't wait to put out a press release to tell people what I've done," said Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, who managed to stuff $448 million for spending targeted for Illinois into the spending bill. "Members of Congress should have the ability to bring back customized things for their districts," said Republican Rep. Thomas Reynolds of New York.
In truth, these targeted spending programs benefit special interests or those with
political connections in home districts. The vast majority of constituents of any given senator or representative will receive zero benefit from earmarks.
The larger problem is that when representatives conceive of their job as bringing home goodies to their districts, they have less time to devote to national priorities, and a culture of seeing the taxpayers' money as a goody bag from which to reward friends and constituents feeds wasteful spending across the board.
To control earmarks, a better method than requiring representatives and senators to attach their names to their projects, would be to require sponsors to identify why each project should qualify for federal dollars. That might not make much difference: look how the Commerce Clause and the General Welfare Clause have been abused, but it would force lawmakers to justify their spending. It could also give the rest of us some insight to their thinking.
Maybe they'll do better next year. Oh, wait, it's an election year. Forget it.
Ethics in Washington? You must be dreaming
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a recently-formed watchdog group,
has put out a list this year of Washington's top 10 ethics scandals. They chose scandals that show promise of having "legs," that is of spilling over into 2008. Here they are, in no particular order.
- No new enforcement mechanisms for congressional ethics. A House panel was due to come up with them in May but hasn't reported yet.
- Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, still sits on Senate Appropriations despite a federal corruption probe.
- The Senate Ethics Committee looked into Idaho Sen. Larry Craig but not Louisiana Sen. David Vitter. Maybe because Vitter's sex scandal was heterosexual?
- Millions of missing White House e-mails still unaccounted for.
- Democratic Rep. John Murtha is still the biggest abuser of the earmarks process.
- Lurita Doan is still chief of the General Services Administration despite allegations she gave a contract to a longtime friend. She denies it.
- White House still covering up possible role in the firings of U.S. attorneys.
- No Child Left Behind funds directed to Bush fundraisers who provide inadequate reading
materials. A Department of Education inspector general's report backs up this charge.
- Court decision on the search of Rep. William "cold cash" Jefferson's office limits the ability of the Justice Department to investigate corrupt lawmakers. An appellate judge ruled that "legislative material" seized when his office was searched can't be used to prosecute other members of Congress.
- FEMA knowingly let Katrina victims live in unsafe trailers.
Not all these scandals are as huge as the crew at CREW seems to think. Doan hasn't been proved guilty, the Jefferson court decision may have protected against "fishing expeditions" without probable cause, and many Katrina victims are happy to have any housing at all, even trailers with some formaldehyde contamination. But the list (which could have been bigger) shows that government and scandal go together.
The biggest scandal, of course, is not so much what is done in the dark of night or hidden, but much of the everyday business of Congress. Using tax money seized by force to reward friends, allies and constituents is deeply corrupt at a fundamental level, yet our elected representatives routinely brag about it.