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Editorial: Earmark Era
The Oklahoman
February 13, 2007
The Oklahoman Editorial
AMONG the issues saddling Republicans in last fall's midterm congressional elections was a creeping sense they hadn't managed federal spending very well in recent years. Chief in evidence was the growth of budget earmarks, synonymous with pork-barrel spending. Sen. Tom Coburn, R- Muskogee, points out that in the 1980s, President Reagan once vetoed a spending bill containing 160 earmarks. Last year, Coburn notes, Congress passed more than 15,000 of them.
The new Democratic majority promised an "earmark moratorium” in appropriations. Late last month the House passed a $464 billion bill to fund government agencies for the rest of the 2007 fiscal year that leaders declared to be largely earmark-free.
Coburn and other don't think so, and he's threatening to tie up the bill in the Senate unless Democrats open up the amending process, which would give him and other senators a chance to get at what they consider wasteful spending. With much of the government funded only through Thursday, he might have some leverage.
There's evidence the era of earmarking is far from over — understanding that an earmark is in the eye of the beholder. Federal dollars for the Crosstown Expressway, for example, would be an earmark to some but hardly wasteful to most Oklahomans. Yet Congress wouldn't be Congress if its members didn't find ways to direct the federal trough to their states and districts. Even in the wake of an earmark moratorium.
The Wall Street Journal reports that although the spending bill purports to be free of earmarks, lawmakers or their staffs have been calling budget officers at federal agencies demanding previous earmarks be fully renewed. Of course, the agencies are compliant because they depend on Congress for every dime they get.
Likewise, Coburn and Sen. John McCain wrote the Energy Department asking how the agency would handle earmarks in report language that accompanies legislation. President Bush may have to do more than talk about earmarks to see something done.
That's because old habits die hard, especially when it involves money and power — first cousins in the nation's capital.
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