Earmarks make an unwelcome return
Opinion: With the federal government $30 trillion in debt, why are Arizona Democrats taking credit for funding local streetlights and jail air conditioners?
By Robert Robb| Arizona Republic
After three continuing resolutions, Congress finally passed a budget for the current fiscal year, which is already nearly half over.
It is better to have a budget than not to have a budget. But that is the end of the credit for a modicum of fiscal responsibility. In general, the process that produced this budget, and its substance, are irresponsibility on parade.
One of the causes of inflation is excessive fiscal stimulus. This budget increases federal discretionary spending by 6%. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, it will add half a trillion dollars to the national debt over the next decade.
Most irresponsible of all is the return of earmarks in this budget, with a vengeance.
Earmarks are when a member of Congress directs money, through the budget, to some local government or nonprofit project with little or no national or even regional significance.
They are offensive in their own right as a form of political patronage. In the past, they have led to outright corruption.
Earmarks make an unwelcome return
U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema are taking credit for earmarks that rack up the federal deficit.
Even more consequential, they grease the skids for higher and higher federal spending. Lawmakers who don’t support the overall budget, however bloated and however deficit financed, don’t get their earmarks.
