Posted by
AZAMATTEROFACT on Tuesday, May 01, 2007 12:19:51 AM
The Federal Government has FORGOTTEN HOW TO SPEND OUR MONEY according to a recent article in the Boston Globe, “Spending puzzle for US agencies” Boston Globe 4/15/2007. The end of earmarks leaves no guidance to countless government agencies as to how to spend money appropriated by Congress. “[S]ome agencies had grown so accustomed to money being earmarked in recent years that their own processes for awarding contracts and grants had lapsed.” Some agencies have “gotten flabby. If you don’t exercise a muscle, that’s what happens…you don’t worry about how to competitively fund a program because Congress will tell you that.” Are you kidding me?
In the FY 2006 Federal Budget there were $29.3 billion in Congressional earmarks. Unfortunately, in a $3 Trillion budget that is close to a rounding error but as they say, “A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you are talking real money.” I guess in my naiveté I would suggest that if these government agencies are unsure of how to spend these monies…DON’T! But of course that can’t happen. The White House directed agencies to use a competitive award system as much as possible. Here’s an idea. If you don’t know exactly what you need to spend money on, DON’T ASK FOR IT IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Who is to blame for this mess? Unfortunately the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of my fellow Republicans. In 1995 there were 1500 Congressional earmarks; in 2005 there were 14,000. The dollar amount? In 1991 it was $3.1 billion but by 2006 it was the aforementioned $29.3 billion. The comedian Lewis Black calls the Democratic Party the party of No Ideas and the Republican Party the party of Shitty Ideas and earmarks are truly becoming a bipartisan scandal. Perhaps this is what they mean when our Congresspeople and Senators say “We need to work together.”
Sens. Tom Coburn (R) of Oklahoma, John McCain ® of Arizona, Thomas Harper (D) of Delaware and Barack Obama (D) of Illinois cosponsored a bill directing the OMB to create a website showing all recipients of federal grants, contracts and other payments. It was supposed to be free, easy to search and accessible to the public. It passed 98-0. But just as the OMB was prepared to put out this information, it sent word to Capitol Hill that –over its protests—it was being kept under wraps by the White House that wanted to appease the appropriators and not “stir up the Hill.” And while the rule passed 98-0 with Sens. Harry Reid, Robert Byrd and Dick Durbin leading the way and giving speeches on the floor of the Senate, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service got a different message from their new masters on Capitol Hill. CRS on Feb 22 announced that “it will no longer identify earmarks for individual programs, activities, entities or individuals.”
Republicans and Democrats need to remember that the reason they each were voted out of power in Congress was because of the perception of voters that spending was out of control and that there was a culture of corruption on Capitol Hill. Earmarks are an indication of both…and of even deeper problems. Perhaps we need to spend a couple of bucks on a Bridge to Fiscal Sanity and to Accountability.