A while back, I happened upon the book "Congress as Santa Claus or National Donations and the General Welfare Clause of the Constitution," published in 1934 by Charles Warren, a rather accomplished legal scholar of his day. Warren argues that Congress got off to an irresponsible start by allocating public money to roads and canals, and later to disaster relief and irrigation systems, all in the name of improving the "general welfare."
Seems like Warren is covering the current Congress. To the surprise of many observers of Newt Gingrich and the "Contract with America" in 1994, the Republican Congress has not eliminated pork-barrel spending. In fact, it might be at an all-time high. This year’s spending bill has about 7,000 "special projects" or "earmarks." This is twice the number of projects of five years ago. To some degree, "pork barrel" is in the eye of the beholder. Legislators joke that "spending money in your district is pork-barreling; spending it in my district is a worthy public investment."
The worst case this year reportedly is a congressman from Nevada who managed to obtain a $225,000 appropriation to repair a public swimming pool in his hometown. He confessed that he sought the funds "because he felt guilt about clogging the pool’s drain with tadpoles when he was 10 years old." A taxpayer’s watchdog group argues that the congressman is using "public money to repay his debt to society."
Increasingly I have pointed out this growing practice, and its ultimate consequences on the nation, in my classes. It was a shocker to most students to learn that the pedestrian bridge across Providence Road over by Memorial Stadium was paid for with 80 percent federal funds and 20 percent from the University of Missouri Athletic Department. In the interest of full disclosure, that big "M" should be replaced with a picture of Uncle Sam. Of course, that bridge serves all of America and promotes the "general welfare" - and, besides, Lawrence, Kan., got some new buildings at KU, too.
While a sluggish economy and the war on terrorism are larger factors, irresponsible spending is a significant contributor to the federal deficit, which is simply out of control. It’s estimated to be $23 billion of the $820 billion federal budget.
My fear is that we now expect our legislators to "bring home the bacon." It will be increasingly difficult for individual legislators to buck the system if they want to be successful in Congress or in state legislatures. Whether you agree with them or not, the Republicans as a minority in Congress in the 1980s and ’90s argued against pork-barreling and for a balanced budget. Now that they are in the majority, they see it differently. Reportedly, Congressman John Boehner of Ohio, a key Republican House leader, has prepared a Republican strategy paper arguing that pork-barreling might just be a cost of being in the majority. So much for the principle of a balanced budget.
A trend I have noticed in my classes is the difficulty many students have in identifying the cost of their public policy ideas. While the Columbia deposit ordinance was a good idea, it was a cost to grocery stores. It’s fine to argue that it was worth it, but to ignore the cost is not a complete analysis. Similarly, Title IX, which has greatly increased women’s participation in college sports, might be a worthwhile idea but has reduced the number of men involved in college sports. Again, this might be a reasonable tradeoff, but it is a cost.
A decade ago, most students had heard the expression "there is no free lunch." Now they think it’s my original slogan.
Overall, I have detected a change in student attitudes toward civic responsibility. One student wrote that "just as you have the freedom to vote, I have the freedom to take from society without giving back. We all have freedom."
Over the next year, there is likely to be a major Supreme Court decision concerning age discrimination laws that were passed without fully recognizing that protecting the jobs of seniors comes at the expense of someone else. There is no free lunch.
While pork-barreling looks like it is free, the money for the Providence Road pedestrian bridge needs to come from somewhere. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus - and we are he!
December 2003 News
Current record
Senator Tom Coburn's activity on the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security
340 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510
