earmarks

A few weeks ago I wrote about one of the problems associated with “ear marks”, which are add ons to a major piece of legislation in that they sometimes encourage a person to vote for a bill they really don’t like. This allows bad bills to pass. There is another reason why ear marks should be discouraged and that is the relationship between lobbyist who push for certain ear marks and then reward the congressmen who votes for them with campaign contributions. This is how the process is contaminated by special interest. You vote for my ear mark and I will give you money for your re-election. Since over 90% of incumbents are re-elected this becomes a vicious circle that is often times not in the best interest of the country.

The current Omnibus bill before the congress is 1.2 trillion and contains 6,000 ear marks totaling 8 billion dollars which is only a small part of the total bill but is equal to 1.3 million dollars per ear mark. Say Senator Smith is asked of 1.3 million dollars to provide for research into the sex life of a fly. He gets this paid as an ear mark and the people who get the money provide him with $50,000 for his next campaign.

This is legalized corruption.