Norm Ornstein has some reform ideas:
Congress should create a series of bipartisan review boards–similar to the current nominating commissions for federal judicial positions–to review and prioritize all earmark appropriations to ensure they reflect genuine priorities and careful pending.
- MN
Categories: Deficit Reduction · Earmarks
An accessible article from CNNMoney about earmarks
Earmarks are a source of abuse. Their importance is overblown. The real problem is that earmarks crowd out serious discussions about the budget. Long term budget trends, specifically future Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security obligations, require serious debate, difficult choices and cuts.
Left unchanged, federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid alone, which now accounts for roughly 5% of GDP, is projected to grow to more than 6% in 2019 and to 12% by 2050, according to the Congressional Budget Office. And that doesn’t include the growing cost of Social Security and other government spending.
On Wednesday, President Obama announced earmark reforms that promote greater transparency. It’s a good first step. It will be more effective if reinforced by a threatened or actual presidential veto.
It’s too late to combat the populist mistrust of earmarks. Better to reduce the practice to only those instances where absolutely necessary. The sooner this happens, the sooner we can move on to something that matters — the long term budget crisis.
Categories: Deficit Reduction · Democrats · Earmarks
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