‘Even in the ‘Drain the Swamp’ era, earmarks are alive and well in Washington D.C….’

(Kaylee McGhee, Liberty Headlines) Wasteful earmark spending more than doubled last year, according to a new study released by the Citizens Against Government Waste.

The 2018 Congressional Pig Book highlighted allocations members of Congress wrote into bills to boost their local districts.

It exposed 232 earmarks, which cost taxpayers more than $14.7 billion, more than double last year’s amount of $6.8 billion.

This is an increase of 116.2 percent according to CAGW, and nearly nine times greater than what the federal budget allows.

The report reveals that members of Congress are unnecessarily wasting money on trivial projects, and that the problem is only getting worse.

The 2011 Budget Control Act could have stopped this, but Congress obliterated it with its 2018 Bipartisan Budget Act.

CAGW said the BCA initially showed promise of reducing the amount of wasteful spending, but “the restraint only lasted for a short period of time,” the report says.

“Even in the ‘Drain the Swamp’ era, earmarks are alive and well in Washington D.C.,” Thomas Schatz, President of CAGW, said in a press conference on Wednesday.

Schatz said the new problem facing the federal government isn’t the growth of earmarks, since they have always been present in the budget.

Rather, it’s the alarming amount of undocumented earmarks that members of Congress cannot be held accountable for.

“There are more earmarks that bear similarities to past earmarks, but with fewer details — less transparency and more secrecy,” Schatz said.

These earmarks pose a new set of problems because they don’t comply with transparency rules, Schatz said.

CAGW estimates that more than 200 members of Congress added 177 of these undocumented earmarks last year, adding up to nearly $44 million.

And although most of this funding goes to local theatres, museums, and opera houses, Schatz said Congress must be held accountable for its actions.

“Congress should save America’s taxpayers money by eliminating this secret earmark and enacting a permanent ban on earmarks,” he said.

Ted Cruz/IMAGE: Fox News via YouTube

The corruption, unfairness, and costs associated with earmarks has long been a concern for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who thanked CAGW for its work in exposing the government’s habitual wasteful spending.

“This is revealing some of the worst pork spending that occurs over and over and over again in the federal budget,” Cruz said at the conference. “The annual Pig Book has been described as the most ‘unpopular book in Washington.’ With some politicians, I guess that must make it tied with the U.S. Constitution and third grade arithmetic, all of which they hope to be able to disregard.”

Cruz said the government continually tries to hide this unnecessary spending, which is why it’s gotten worse in recent years.

“Doing this highlights a process that flourishes in darkness,” Cruz said. “Earmarks, spending, deficit, and debt all grow when the lights are turned off. All grow when attention is focused somewhere else. And what earmarks, spending, deficit, and debt loathe more than anything is sunshine, because that sunshine has a disinfectant effect.”

Cruz, along with Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, sponsored a bipartisan bill to permanently ban earmarks, called the Earmark Elimination Act.

But the Republican-controlled Congress is considering eliminating all bans on earmarks and bringing back the old spending allocation system.

“You know, in the last few years we’ve seen discussion in Republican leadership about ending the ban on earmarks,” Cruz said. “To me, at least, that seems like fiscal lunacy. One of the most significant conservative victories for reigning in out-of-control spending, and yet, Republican majorities would be the ones to abandon that.”

Joni Ernst/Photo by IowaPolitics.com

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said most the programs funded by these earmarks are duplicative of federal agencies.

She pointed to regional commissions, like the Delta Regional Authority, that receive money from the federal government to develop “clean energy alternatives,” despite the fact that the Department of Energy already provides these resources.

Ernst also said that most of these earmarks are frivolous and go toward programs that harm rather than benefit the taxpayer.

She pointed to the Northern Border Commission, which received more than $100,000 to build ski jumps at a local ski club.

“I’m not a downhill skier so maybe it means more to others, but probably not a good use of our dollars,” Ernst said.

Ernst also pointed to the Delta Regional Commission, which was awarded $75,000 in 2012 for a video game incubator.

“It’s a big help to all my folks in Iowa,” Ernst said. “I tell you what, this is a lot of very wasteful spending, folks. And we really do need to get control of this.”

Cruz said wasteful spending is unavoidable since the federal government is so big, but eliminating earmarks would help reduce the problem by forcing transparency and accountability.

“There will always be government spending and there’s a process for that — a process set up by the Constitution and the rules of the House and Senate. Spending should be through open and transparent processes — where the people can see where spending is going — to the needs of the entire country. We’re not simply bringing home the bacon, but doing the job of the Congress of the United States to focus on the needs of the United States as a whole.”

https://www.libertyheadlines.com/earmarks-pork-barrel-pig-book/