In a country that tries to ignore that we now have $34 trillion in debt and growing, you would think that our legislature would have maintained the ban on earmarks, or what I prefer to call “pork barrel” spending, which was banned over a decade ago. Unfortunately, both Democrats and Republicans decided to reinstate pork spending in 2021. What are earmarks?
Citizens Against Government Waste outlines seven criteria by which spending in the United States can be classified as "pork":
1. Requested by only one chamber of Congress
2. Not specifically authorized
3. Not competitively awarded
4. Not requested by the President
5. Greatly exceeds the President's budget request or the previous year's funding
6. Not the subject of Congressional hearings
7. Serves only a local or special interest
In the current legislation, there are more than 6,000 earmarks, which comes to a total of more than $12.7 billion. Especially interesting is that if a person inserts an earmark into the bill, they are not required to vote for the bill but the earmark will be included.
There are no limits to costs or the number of earmarks that can be added to the bill:
"The earmarks range across hundreds of projects, from funding local community centers to grant programs to construction projects and more, usually pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into each project, at the involved lawmakers’ request."
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Convention of States is determined to educate our country on ways to practice fiscal responsibility. For too many years, our legislators have insisted on spending funds in a manner which this country cannot afford. They assume that as long as they are voting for something that supports a project in their own state, that the rest of the country will ignore this earmark practice and continue to run up the debt.
It’s time for us to demand that our legislators practice restraint and wisdom in the expenditures of our government.
To learn more about the Convention of States process to amend the Constitution to include fiscal restraints look at the COS Pocket Guide, page 7, section 3.1 "The Spending and Debt Crisis."
