Demanding a federal budget that is fair, responsible, and meets our nation's priorities

Friday, March 07, 2008

Earmark Moratorium: Fiscal Fetishism?

With the budget resolution action for the week behind us, we are free to turn to attention again to an issue which for two years now has generated discussion and debate so disproportionate to its actual budgetary significance than it's possible we've moved over from mere obsession into the realm of fiscal fetishism: earmarks.

Let us maintain some perspective on the magnitude of the issue. As you know, the federal government spends roughly $3 trillion annually. The amount of that money that is spent pursuant to specific congressional directive at the behest of a single member, i.e., an earmark, is $20 billion at most. Note, by the way, that we are not talking about additional spending amounts, but already-approved amounts -- ban all earmarks and you save not a single penny.

So if we have an earmarks moratorium, for example, we're talking about re-allocating the spending of what portion of the federal budget?

0.7 percent. At most.

OK, now let's check in on the earmarks moratorium debate and see if it makes any sense.

The Wall Street Journal weighs in today with a story suggesting that the earmarks struggle, championed by GOP presummptive presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), may lay waste to the party in November:

Republicans are facing their most brutal election environment in decades... Earmarks now rank among the bedrock conservative principles [and] diverging from Mr. McCain on earmarks guarantees it will be a defining issue in their re-election races.... Smart opponents will use the split against vulnerable incumbents. Republicans will have to explain why Mr. McCain is wrong to want to shutdown the earmark factory, and their answers will be tragicomic.

Sounds dramatic. Conjures visions of fratricide, cannibalism, and electoral loss. But sanity may yet reign and the party may be spared. The Hill reports that "the idea of imposing either a temporary or a long-term moratorium appears to be off the table, Republicans said Thursday."

No matter -- moratorium proponents are massing on Capitol Hill this morning, armed with petitions containing 100,000 signatures, staging a rally and press conference and apparently "Grassfire" will be there!

Spectators, if there are any, will be excused for their confusion. Ordinary citizens dismiss the spectacle of a congressional minority, powerless, issue-less, bored by its own impotence, and yet seized of its own importance. Regular people from the heartland, surveying the scene, might agree with this teacher, quoted in today's Chicago Tribune:

What's needed isn't a ban on earmarks but a more sensible way to evaluate and prioritize projects.