Election News and Features
Pork Spending Looms Large in Election Year
by
findingDulcinea Staff
With John McCain having abstained from earmark spending, pork is one issue likely to put the Democratic presidential nominee on the defensive.
30-Second Summary
Congress allocated $18.3 billion in earmark spending during fiscal year 2008. Disparaged by President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address last month, earmarks, also known as “pork,” are attached by congressmen to appropriations bills to direct money to pet projects. This circumvents established budgetary procedures.
However, some argue that earmark funding is not used only for constituency-pleasing contrivances. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) pointed out in August that the bipartisan Iraq Study Group was funded with an earmark.
Across the country, earmarks have also been used to improve military bases, refurbish historical landmarks and support police departments.
But the suspicion that pork barrel politics is an abuse of privilege remains on both sides of the aisle. “The earmarking process in Congress has become a symbol of a broken Washington,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).
Longtime House member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) holds similar views. A statement on his Web site reads, “Congressional spending on earmarks is out of control.” Waxman is now the 18th member of Congress to officially abstain from adding earmarks to legislation.
Another is Republican presidential contender John McCain, who will likely wield his abstention against the eventual Democratic presidential nominee. Democrats will make much of the reported drop in earmark spending that followed their winning the congressional majority.
Although both Democratic candidates use earmarks, Barack Obama believes that earmark money should only be spent on public institutions. Hillary Clinton says that earmarks are a vital way to ensure federal money reaches her home state of New York.
Clinton’s spending on earmarks is nearly four times that of Obama’s. Indeed, she is in the top 10 spenders on earmarks and the only one of that number not to belong to an approprations committee.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) was the top pork spender last year, with a total of $345 million in earmarks, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.
However, some argue that earmark funding is not used only for constituency-pleasing contrivances. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) pointed out in August that the bipartisan Iraq Study Group was funded with an earmark.
Across the country, earmarks have also been used to improve military bases, refurbish historical landmarks and support police departments.
But the suspicion that pork barrel politics is an abuse of privilege remains on both sides of the aisle. “The earmarking process in Congress has become a symbol of a broken Washington,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).
Longtime House member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) holds similar views. A statement on his Web site reads, “Congressional spending on earmarks is out of control.” Waxman is now the 18th member of Congress to officially abstain from adding earmarks to legislation.
Another is Republican presidential contender John McCain, who will likely wield his abstention against the eventual Democratic presidential nominee. Democrats will make much of the reported drop in earmark spending that followed their winning the congressional majority.
Although both Democratic candidates use earmarks, Barack Obama believes that earmark money should only be spent on public institutions. Hillary Clinton says that earmarks are a vital way to ensure federal money reaches her home state of New York.
Clinton’s spending on earmarks is nearly four times that of Obama’s. Indeed, she is in the top 10 spenders on earmarks and the only one of that number not to belong to an approprations committee.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) was the top pork spender last year, with a total of $345 million in earmarks, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Headline Link: ‘Candidates’ Earmarks Worth Millions’
Of all of the frontrunners in this year’s presidential campaign, only Republican John McCain has completely rejected earmarks. The Washington Post writes that McCain’s decision stems from “his long-standing view that such measures prompt needless spending.” Democrats spent 57 percent of the money allotted for earmarks in fiscal-year 2008, yet according to information from the Post, the $18.3 billion spent was 23 percent lower than the amount spent in fiscal year 2005, when the Republicans held the congressional majority.
Source: The Washington Post
Background: The definition of ‘earmark’
Slate provides a short, cogent essay defining the earmark: “In general, the word ‘earmark’ refers to any element of a spending bill that allocates money for a very specific thing—a given project, say, or location, or institution.” Slate also notes that earmarks can be slipped into legislation by the appropriations and conference committees that write the reports that accompany the final bill.
Source: Slate
Opinion & Analysis: Earmarks, a bipartisan issue
According to a database compiled by watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, members of Congress spent more than $18 billion in earmarks last year, with only 18 legislators abstaining from earmark spending. The biggest spender is former Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), whose earmarks totaled $345 million. “The earmarking process in Congress has become a symbol of a broken Washington,” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said. Earmarks do benefit worthwhile programs, however, such as police department funding, military base improvement, historic monument restoration and research grants.
Source: The Raw Story
Mike Franc, the Heritage Foundation’s vice president for government relations, said in a video on the organization’s Web site that last year that Congress passed a 3,417-page omnibus bill that included over 12,000 earmarks.
Source: The Heritage Foundation
On Feb. 12, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) vowed not to push through any earmarks this legislative term. On his Web site he said, “Congressional spending on earmarks is out of control.” Waxman, who was first elected to Congress in the 1970s, applauded House Appropriations Chair David Obey for reducing earmarks from the record high levels seen in 2005. “I think our best approach would be to suspend all earmarks for the 2009 appropriations cycle while we consider the right reforms,” Waxman said.
Source: The Hill
In August last year, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) argued that the Democratic Congress had significantly improved pork spending by requiring that each earmark be fully described and its sponsor identified. “To ignore our reforms as if they never occurred and to criticize us for not ending a practice we never pledged to end is disingenuous,” writes Emanuel. Not all earmarks are bad, Emanuel argues. He notes that the bipartisan Iraq Study Group was funded with an earmark.
Source: The New York Times
President George W. Bush’s push to eradicate earmarks during his 2008 State of the Union speech annoyed legislators on both sides of the aisle. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), according to Congressional Quarterly, thought Bush was merely “trying to score political points.” New York Republican Rep. James T. Walsh, who is retiring at the end of this year, said of the president’s anti-earmark stance, “I think we as a legislature want to respect his priorities, but he needs to respect ours. So as long as I’m here, I will fight him on that.”
Source: Congressional Quarterly
Historical Context: Earmarked spending since 1991
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) is a national non-profit organization campaigning to “eliminate waste, mismanagement and inefficiency in the federal government.” The organization provides yearly a summaries of pork-barrel projects going back to 1991. In its latest report, CAGW notes that 2007 is the Chinese Year of the Pig. “Fortunately for American taxpayers, it will be a smaller pig than usual.”
Source: The Web site of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste
Reference: Tools to track congressional spending
CQ Budget Tracker follows appropriation legislation and sends a daily email with updates. A free trial is available on Congressional Quarterly’s Web site.
Source: Congressional Quarterly
Taxpayers for Common Sense is a non-partisan legislative watchdog that tracks earmark spending. Its Web site includes a downloadable database of earmarks for fiscal-year 2008.
Source: Taxpayers for Common Sense
EarmarkWatch.org invites site users to investigate earmark spending for themselves and share their findings with the public.
Source: EarmarkWatch.org
Related Topics: Lawmakers and EarmarkWatch.org
According to Washington, D.C., newspaper The Hill, among presidential candidates, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) has assigned the most money in the form of earmarks. She spent a total of $530 million in pork in 2007. At the other end of the scale, Sen. Jon McCain (R.-Ariz.) has not requested a single earmark.
Source: The Hill
Rep. Don Young (R-Ala.) has been investigated in connection with his allocation of earmarks to political donors. “Young’s legal problems reflect a rise in political corruption investigations by the Justice Department in recent years, which have focused on the connections between campaign contributions and the funding of pet projects through earmarks,” McClatchy Newspapers reports.
Source: McClatchy Newspapers
EarmarkWatch.org
The Washington Post reports on EarmarkWatch.org, a new Web site that invites users to research the pork-barrel activities of congressmen and share their work online. The Post writes, “Three users of the site recently ran down an earmark for ICRC Solutions, an Alaska company that received $1 million for a Land and Sea Special Operations all-terrain vehicle … In comments posted on the site, users said the company’s chief executive is James Lexo, a former aide to Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) and a big campaign contributor.”
Source: The Washington Post
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