Earmarks for All

An earmark is “congressional funding for a specific local project.”

The way earmarks work is a legislator adds text to an appropriations bill like…

Hey, of this $90 billion going to the Department of Transportation I want $1M to go to a parade in my district.

People defend earmarks by saying…

1. They’re tradition…

I have been a fan of earmarks since I got here the first day. Keep in mind, that’s what the country has done for more than 200 years, except for the brief period of time in recent years that we haven’t done these. — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D), 2014

But what they are is unconstitutional.

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; — Article I, Section 8

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce. — James Madison

If the general welfare clause, the commerce clause, and the 10th amendment are going to mean anything then Congress shouldn’t be able to fund “narrow interests” like a small intrastate project.

Just as we’d consider it unconstitutional to only pass a tax on Jim it shouldn’t be able to do the inverse on the spending side by only passing a subsidy for him or his “non-profit.”

And earmarks really didn’t take off until the 1980’s.

This week the Congress sent me a highway construction bill that was loaded with pork-barrel projects. I haven’t seen so much lard since I handed out blue ribbons at the Iowa State Fair. — Ronald Reagan (R), 1987

Congressional Republicans then banned them in 2011, which helped them succeed at their larger goal of reducing discretionary spending as a percentage of GDP.