The reason why earmarks matter (it ain't the money)

[Bread and Circus]

Opinion

First off, this earmark issue is being extremely overblown. It's a real problem, for sure, but it's not cause of most of our problems these days. Irresponsible deregulation, a broken health care system, speculation gone wild, and a rising oil hungry China are more likely to blame (not to mention Bush and McCain's stupid war).

Earmarks as a percentage of the federal budget is quite low. Even then, a lot of earmarks do go for necessary projects. Furthermore the money is often infused back into the U.S. economy for things like construction jobs (as opposed to shipping money overseas to China which is what Walmart Shoppers do everyday).

So, even if you got rid of all earmarks, you wouldn't fix our economy, you wouldn't fix medicare and our failing health care system, and you wouldn't balance the budget going forward.

The real problem with earmarks as I see it is that they are a behind the scenes kickback system to campaign contributers. Take Hillary Clinton for example, she was well known for being very successful for bringing home the bacon. She did a lot of great things. However a lot of that money was funneled back to defense contractors and other for profit corporations who so happened to contribute heavily to her campaign. This goes for just about every Senator. You grease my palm, I grease yours.

The problem is that it further contributed to undue influence of corporations and corporate heads.

Lobbyists are another head of that seven headed hydra and it's something Obama has tackled head on (in addition to stopping tagging bills with earmarks) but John McCain has not. So, while John McCain is notably honorable for his earmark stance, he hasn't really done or proposed what is necessary to decrease corporate influence in Washington.

So, while John McCain wants to decrease wasteful spending and ostensibly save some pennies on the dollar, he is not going to the root of the problem. Irresponsible deregulation, corporate influence, lack of strategic economic planning, and a broken health care system will continue to exist.

[Lasher]

1. Junior started complaining about earmarks after Republicans lost control of Congress.

And nary a peep about them before then. They want to vilify Congressional Democrats and take this form of authority out of Congress and into the Executive. These are their real motives.