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Thursday, January 26, 2006
Following up on the earmarks
Six days ago we had this post criticizing congressman David Drier (R-CA) for saying:
It's important to note that we've had a $3 billion reduction under the leadership of Congressman Jerry Lewis of the earmarking process just within the last year.
We also criticize NPR for letting Drier spout such nonsense unchallenged on the air. We finally had time to revisit the issue after reading this report on the Republican affinity for earmarking:
Republicans are particularly upset about the proliferation of lawmakers' pet projects under GOP control of Congress. For instance, total spending on such "earmarks" hit $17 billion in the fiscal 2006 round of congressional appropriations bills, according to a House Appropriations Committee tally.
Very, very upset...that everyone else is doing it. But not upset enough to stop their own earmarks.
According to Citizens Against Government Waste -- hardly a liberal's best friend -- pork barrel spending has increased dramatically since Republicans took control of Congress. CAGW reports $12 billion in pork barrel spending in 1999 on a total of 2,838 projects. By 2004, spending was $23 billion on 10,656 projects. Contrary to Drier's assertion, 2005 represented the largest year-over-year increase in pork barrel spending since 2000. In 2005, CAGW reports $27.3 billion in pork barrel spending on 13,999 projects.
Likewise, Taxpayers for Commonsense reports that the 2005 defense appropriation bill containel "politically motivated earmarks worth $12.2 billion" -- a record high.
The only exception I can find is that the 2006 spending for Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education contained $1.69 billion reduction in earmarks. That reduction was more than made up for with increases in other spending bills.
We don't have a Ted Stevens in Minnesota, but Makeover Mark Kennedy has tried his best to deliver for his district. The 2005 transportation bill contained $35 million in Kennedy's earmarks. Let's keep that in mind as Kennedy rolls out his reform packages as a candidate for Senate.
