Congress is bringing home the bacon, but you're paying for it. After banning earmarks a decade ago during the Obama administration, Democrats in Congress brought them back in 2021, and now both parties have resumed the practice like it never stopped. The recent minibus government funding bill that passed Congress was the latest example, containing more than 6,600 earmarks costing more than $12 billion. According to the watchdog OpenTheBooks, Congress has pushed through some $32 billion in earmarks in just the last year, with both parties guilty of spending on pet projects.
Not all lawmakers on Capitol Hill are on board the gravy train. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley (R) has been a frequent critic of this type of pork barrel spending. "These earmarks are like cocaine...it's just like spending crack (to lawmakers)," he tells reporters. Likewise, Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall (R) says he doesn't like the way earmarks are added to spending bills without public scrutiny. "I think if the senators had to go to the floor and defend some of these, or if they knew they might have to do that, then I think they wouldn't even offer them," says Marshall.
Now that earmarks are back with a vengeance, don't expect either party to mount a serious effort to get rid of them anytime soon. "Politicians, and admittedly some Republicans as well, realize when we spend money, and give people stuff, and pork, and income, and forgive rent and student loan payments, guess what? They like it, and we get reelected," says Adam Johnson, financial analyst with Bullseye Brief in an interview with Fox Business.
While pork barrel spending is a small percentage of the overall budget (earmarks made up less then 3% of the minibus spending bill), it contributes to overall debt spending, which is spiraling out of control. "We already know that entitlements--social security, Medicaid, Medicare--will effectively run out of money within 7 to 10 years," says Johnson. "There doesn't seem to be a willingness to address that, so instead Mr. Biden says no problem, we'll just tax more."
"No, we don't have a tax collection problem, we have a government spending problem."
Photo: SULLIVAN, JON (uploader)