Earmarks Encourage Spending and That’s No Lie

Conn Carroll / March 10, 2009

The left is growing frustrated with the success conservatives are having in framing the omnibus spending bill as classic wasteful government spending. Pushing back, the Center for American Progress claims that Cutting Earmarks Doesn’t Save Money and Roll Call’s Stan Collender writes: “Saying That Cutting Earmarks Will Reduce Spending Is A Lie.”

Collender reasons:

An earmark simply is a congressional decision to allocate part of appropriation for a particular purpose. Eliminating the allocation doesn’t reduce the appropriation, it simply leaves the allocation decision to a federal department or agency rather than to Congress.

This statement is true. But conservatives do not claim that earmarks in themselves add to spending totals. As William McGurn explains in the Wall Street Journal:

What the public does not understand is that the more earmarks there are in a bill, the harder it will be to vote against it. The reason is simple: With every earmark, a congressman or senator gains a personal stake in the passage of a bill he or she might otherwise oppose. (more…)