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Changing Washington Starts With Earmark Reform
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April 8, 2008 - Greenville News - Recently Clemson University President Jim Barker wrote an op-ed in these pages defending earmarks. Barker argued in favor of congressional earmarks as they have been a means by which Clemson has received federal funding for many different projects.
There is no doubt that many of the projects that President Barker cites are worthy of federal funding. As a Clemson alumnus, a lifelong Tiger fan, a proud parent of two Clemson graduates, the husband of a Clemson alumna and a legislator who in the past has helped secure earmarks for this university, I am deeply sympathetic to the needs of my alma mater. As the administration and faculty continue to make Clemson one of our country's pre-eminent educational institutions, I want to help in any way that I can without violating my conscience.
I favor a process that rewards recipients based on merit, not on legislators' seniority in Congress. Clemson should have no reason to fear such a process. I am confident that leveling the playing field will benefit Clemson, as well as the American taxpayers.
Clearly, my opposition to congressional earmarking has nothing to do with Clemson or the many other outstanding educational institutions in South Carolina. Nor does it have anything to do with the many meritorious projects across the state in need of funding.
I oppose congressional earmarking because I believe the practice has corrupted our system of government and perverted our purpose as legislators.
After the 2006 midterm elections it became clear to me that one of the reasons the American people rejected the Republican Party was that we had become complicit with the big-spending, wasteful and corrupting status quo in Washington. We were sent to Washington to eradicate this behavior, not to partake in it. I believe that earmarking was the primary enabler of this phenomenon.
When senators and congressmen are more concerned with whether or not their particular pet project is funded in a bill than they are with the bill's actual contents, you have a system set up for waste and excess. When powerful appropriation committee chairmen have the ability to buy votes for legislation by spreading around earmarks to more junior members, you have a system that misdirects our purpose as members of Congress. When earmark lobbyists are expected to write campaign checks to members who secure funding for their projects, you have a system that is ripe for quid pro quos and corruption.
This is not the way to spend taxpayer dollars. Wasting billions of dollars on cowgirl museums, bridges to nowhere, even a World Toilet Summit is offensive enough. But the corruption that accompanies this system is beyond the pale.
This corruption has landed members of Congress in jail, and led convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff to label the system the "earmark favor factory" for his ability to get politicians to secretly funnel his clients millions of dollars through earmarks.
The earmark process is actually pretty simple. Powerful appropriations committees in the House and Senate give each member of Congress a slush fund to spend on their favorite projects. The politician simply creates a list of top projects and they usually get funded, no questions asked. Members of the committee get more to spend than others, and chairmen get even more. This is why Alaska and West Virginia continually get millions more in earmarks than states like South Carolina and Georgia.
Politicians facing tough re-elections get extra taxpayer dollars to give to their states, so they can be seen as "effective legislators." This means that funding goes to universities based not on the quality of the school but whether they are represented by a senior member on the right committee.
It is also important to remember that there is another downside to the earmarking practice. The billions of dollars that we waste on congressional pet projects is borrowed money. We are borrowing from Social Security, from our grandchildren, from China even -- and for what? We borrow so we can secure our next election rather than the future for the next generation.
It is time to live up to our purpose as legislators and close the "earmark favor factory" once and for all. Doing so would be a signal to the American people that Congress is ready to end business as usual in Washington and get serious about being responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars.
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