What's wrong with earmarks?

According to the politicians, the American kitchen table is the center of all family decision making, the place where matters of the economy – mortgage payments, medical bills, college tuition, the price of gasoline, and of course grocery and utility bills – are laid out to be dealt with by families feeling the stress.

It’s always stress, of course; have you ever heard about a family sitting around the kitchen table discussing how to spend an inheritance or lotto winnings?

No, it’s always something worrisome. And right now just about everything is worrisome.

While Mom and Dad and the kids are gathered ‘round the kitchen table, lingering over a delicious beef stew to put off as long as possible the after-supper discussion about household bills and how to pay them, we have banks failing, homes going into foreclosure, small businesses closing, the auto industry in a shambles, and folks losing their jobs; there’s also the matter of a couple of unfinished wars, a militant Iran, a pugnacious Russia, and near anarchy south of our border.

So what are the Republicans worried about most? Earmarks. “Pork.”

Terrible, wicked, close to sinful and very, very wrong. At least that’s what they seem to have become over the years; they’ve become almost as bad as taxes, if you listen to Republican rhetoric.

It’s time the American people sit up and think about this.

Earmarks are said to amount to less than two percent of the present budget being considered in Washington, but some members of Congress want to do away with them altogether. Most of those worthies have earmarks of their own in the bill, but those should be kept, of course.

What, exactly, is an earmark? According to the OMB,

At the broadest level, [it] is any additional funding provided by the Congress … for activities/projects/programs not requested by the Administration.

In other words, it gives any member of Congress the opportunity to amend the Administration’s budget to add funding for a specific purpose in his own district; after all, we elect our representatives to work for our State or congressional district, and that’s what he’s doing. Bringing home the bacon. “Pork.”

It’s called democracy, if you ask me. Or do you prefer that the budget submitted by the Administration and all its departments be the be-all and end-all, stop right there?

Earmarks got a bad rap in the past because of outrageous stuff like the “bridge to nowhere,” and earmarks slipped in at the last minute to escape review. And there’s some silly stuff in the current budget. But those things are fixable; getting rid of all of them is like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Just doesn’t make sense.

If our government is going to assist with, say, the cost of rebuilding a falling-down school in South Carolina or repairing a bridge in Minnesota or rebuilding a portion of I-35, adding it to the current budget will make it happen a lot faster than the two years or so it could take for a bill to work its way through Congress all by itself.

Let’s go back to that kitchen table.

After the dishes are cleared the bills are laid out, and with the help of a small calculator it’s determined that they are going to have to prioritize. There’s not as much to work with since the economy started tanking. So they add up the necessities – mortgage, light bill, gasoline, health insurance, dog food, food.

They can save a little if Dad brown-bags his lunch most days, and new sneakers for the kids can wait another month (if they would just stop growing!). Mom will give up her gym membership for now.

But the car repair can’t wait, so it’s added in. (Earmark!) So are the textbook and school supply costs that are due. (Earmark!) It’s time for the dog’s trip to the vet for annual shots. (Earmark!)

The evening goes on, and money is earmarked for Buddy’s dental work, for Mom’s mammogram, for Sissy’s Girl Scout uniform. Non-essentials, you might think, but they are determined to find the money because these are important to the family. So they earmark part of the family budget for each of these expenses.

They will end up dipping into their savings to get by for now, but they are betting on the economy turning around eventually so they’ll be able to catch up. Meantime, they will get by, with the help of a little earmarking.