Republican Waffling

Earmark spending is the effort by individual Congressmen to get specific spending proposals for the benefit of their district enacted into legislation, such as the infamous Bridge to No Where in Alaska that would cost a couple hundred million dollars to connect to an island with 50 residents. Not only do earmarks cost about $8 billion a year, but it is often the grease to getting other legislation passed (think along the lines of: "if you vote for this healthcare bill, I will make sure you get that earmark you want"). As such, it has been called the "gateway drug" to expanding government spending.

Some have argued that earmarks are a legitimate Congressional prerogative to battle the power of the president. Some have said it is a way for Republicans to right the balance of spending toward their districts, since so much of the spending explosion under the Democrats went to Blue states and districts. While there may be some validity to those points, they miss the larger picture.

If the government can't eliminate earmarks, which so many Americans detest, how can the government tackle the big spending amounts?

And if someone thinks $8 billion isn't that much money, then that perfectly defines the spending problem we have in Washington - it is a staggering amount of money, averaging out to over $100 for a family of four, and until the government starts thinking every dollar matters, it won't have the conviction to cut the many hundreds of billions of dollars in spending that is necessary to balance the budget.

House Republicans in the past voted to end earmarks, but under Nancy Pelosi's leadership Democrats went ahead with earmarks. Now that the House has turned Republican, and the likely next Speaker of the House John Boehner and likely next Majority Leader Eric Cantor have continued to speak out forcefully against earmarks, we can count on the House to eliminate earmarks.

Unbelievably, some Senate Republicans aren't sure. Minority leader Mitch McConnell and others are opposing the efforts to end earmarks. And now Barack Obama is getting to the right of some Senate Republicans by calling for a ban on earmarks.

Mitch McConnell is wrong on policy and clearly wrong on the politics of earmarks. The Republican ascendancy will be short-lived and unhelpful to righting the ills of the country if Senate Republicans get this wrong.