Earmark Response

[Joe3113]

"The government steals the money from people, I'm just trying to get some of it back for them. What I want to do is prevent the government from stealing it in the first place."

Any good?

[bucfish]

If anyone from HQ's is reading Dana Perrine THE WH SpokesWoman said Bush will address earmarks tonight.

[MikeSmith]

Controversy
Earmarks in U.S. legislation have been a point of contention for many years. Critics argue that the ability to earmark Federal funds should not be part of the legislative appropriations process [3]. Tax money should be applied by Federal agencies according to objective findings of need and carefully constructed requests rather than being earmarked arbitrarily by elected officials. Supporters of earmarks however, feel that elected officials are better able to prioritize funding needs in their own districts and states and that it is more democratic for these officials to make discreet funding decisions than unelected civil servants. Critics counter that elected representatives have too much of a vested interest in their own districts and do not have the Nation's interests as a whole in mind when making these decisions with taxpayer money.

Despite ongoing controversy over their use, Congress' year-end budget passed in December 2007 contains almost 9,000 earmarks. 2,658 of them representing $13.2 billion have been identified as "Pork Projects" by Citizens Against Government Waste, significantly lower than the numbers and dollar amounts of recent prior years: 13,997 "Pork Projects" for a total of $27.3 billion in 2005, and 9,963 projects for a total of $29 billion in 2006.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earmarking