An earmark is a line-item in congressional legislation that allocates a specified amount of money for a specific project, program, or organization.  Conveniently for lawmakers, the American taxpayer dollars that are allocated for these specific purposes bypass customary budgetary procedures and often the American people never hear of them.  You may know this better as “pork.”

 

Congress’ exploitation of the earmark is so shady that it often borders on criminal.  This entire topic is just vomit.  Instead of intelligent compromise and altruistic collaboration, Congress uses American tax dollars as their very own re-election fund, exchanging their vote for money to fund their local pet projects (remember the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere?”).

 

The highly corrupt process ensures that the funding of these projects is based on power instead of merit, and they clearly exemplify one of the most fundamental problems with our government: a lack of transparency that leads to a significant absence of accountability.

 

There is no other way to say it:  These special projects, regardless of their worthiness, are straight up bribery.  It is absolutely flabbergasting that we let them get away with this.  Because our dysfunctional two-party system has completely broken down, Congress has decided to pass legislation by simply paying one another off.  Paying.  One.  Another.  Off. 

 

…in the United States of America.  Not Colombia, not Mexico, not Guatemala, not Ghana.  The United States of America.

 

The crazies have officially taken over the asylum and they have our checkbook.  This is how the world’s greatest democracy legislates?  This is the level of corruption, malpractice and irresponsibility that we have decided to accept?

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No.  Just no.  Earmarks alone are reason enough to bust up the little party our members of Congress are having in Washington.  This is not the way to govern.  This snake oil, smoke and mirrors, sideshow approach to governing is absurd.

 

Earmarks were technically “banned” in 2011, but that was pretty much a joke. In fact, Citizens Against Government Waste’s annual Congressional Pig Book (read it here) revealed that earmarks increased every single year after the ban. In fact, the cost of earmarks increased by 33 percent from 2016 to 2017 alone.

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Yes, you read that right.  Even though there was an actual law prohibiting Congress from adding earmarks to legislation, they just completely ignored it and did it anyway.  Obviously, they believe laws just don’t apply to them.  In any country and in any language, that is the very definition of corruption.

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In FY2020, Congress included $15.9 billion (that’s BILLION, with a B) of earmarks, which is only 3.6 percent less than the cost of earmarks in 2010, the year before the “ban.”  This number is a 133.8 percent increase from FY2017.

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Examples of FY2020 earmarks include $2.1 billion for twenty-two F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft that, by the way, the Pentagon didn’t even request (plus, doesn’t the Pentagon have their own astronomical budget already?); wild horse and burro management ($25.8 million); money to get rid of the poor little brown tree snake ($663,000); and $65,000,000 for Pacific coastal salmon recovery.

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Listen, we love the Pacific coastal salmon as much as the next guy — but could whoever is in charge of their recovery not get it done with the $65,000,000 they received in both FY2018 AND FY 2019?  We'll do the math for you.  In just three years, the United States spent $195,000,000 on this one fish.

 

Seriously?  People, we have eighth graders who can’t read.