Out-of-touch Earmarks & Elites

Campus Report ^ | September 25, 2008 | Lance Nation

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Out-of-touch Earmarks & Elites

by: Lance Nation, September 25, 2008

Those congressmen who defend earmarks as necessary may be grateful that few in the Washington press corps look too carefully at them.

“I realized that there was no merit in this system,” U. S. Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., said at the weekly meeting of Washington, D. C. area bloggers at the Heritage Foundation. “Jim Oberstar who represents the 8th District in Minnesota got as much money for transportation earmarked for that district as the other seven of us combined.”

“Was that because the 8th district was growing faster and had greater transportation needs? No, in fact the opposite is true . . . Then, I looked a little closer and I noticed that Mr. Oberstar had gotten as much money earmarked for bike trails in and round Duluth, as I did for roads and bridges in one of the fastest growing districts in Minnesota . . .”

“And, it had become abundantly clear to me that the system had to be stopped and fundamentally changed if we are going to have any sort of earmarking system where members of Congress can designate money to various projects . . .” The congressman has helped inaugurate a new web site to call attention to abuse of earmarks and other legislative stratagems. “This is an effort, StopthePork.com, to reach out to people across America to sign our petition, so that I can take it to the new Congress in January and say, ‘Stop this Pork.’” ....