The Wrong Stuff - Democratic Underground

DeSwiss

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Sun Jul-15-07 10:31 PM
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The Wrong Stuff

I just got through clicking around my fav links and I came across an article at FDL that I believe is very telling:

"...George Condon and Marcus Stern, two of the co-authors–along with Jerry Kammer and Dean Calbreath–of The Wrong Stuff: The Extraordinary Saga of Randy “Duke” Cunningham, the Most Corrupt Congressman Ever Caught.

*snip*

But the thing that makes this book important beyond Cunningham and his corrupt buddies is the larger framework the authors hang the story onto: the abuse of the Congressional earmark system. Here’s their description of how the earmark system has ballooned into an industry unto itself."

When Reagan took office in 1981, there were fewer than ten earmarks in the transportation bill, according to the Heritage Foundation. Seven years later, the president vetoed the bill because it had 121 earmarks in it. In 1991, that grew to 538 earmarks; then 1,850 by 1998; and by 2005 the total surpassed 6,373–costing a staggering $24.2 billion–according to Taxpayers for Common Sense. And the problem was not confined to the transportation bill. In a bitter irony for fiscal conservatives, the pork swelled in all spending bills after Republicans took over. Two years earlier, under Democrats, there had been 892 earmarks worth $2.6 billion. By 1998, there were about 2,000 earmarks worth $10.6 billion. By 2005, the number had jumped to nearly 14,000, at a cost of $27.3 billion.

The architect of the Republican takeover, Speaker Newt Gingrich, ordered appropriators to make sure that vulnerable Republican members got what they needed for local projects. Earmarking might have been terrible governance, but it was great politics. Earmarks were part of the Washington incumbent protection machine, especially for Republican leaders determined to protect their majority status.

Under the close watch of Gingrich and his top lieutenant, Tom DeLay of Texas, the Republicans took to assigning members from toss-up districts to Appropriations Committees. This paid immediate political dividends. It allowed newcomers, despite their lack of seniority, to deliver more pork projects to their district and it allowed them to raise more money because now they could hit up the companies that wanted earmarks.

Not surprisingly, the ranks of Washington lobbyists swelled in tandem with earmarking. The selling of earmarks became a specialized industry because lobbying firms recruited former members of Congress and congressional staffers whose connections could grease the process. By one count in 2005, Washington had nearly thirty-five thousand registered lobbyists, more than twice as many as it had in 2000, and sixty-five for every member of Congress.

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/07/15/fdl-book-salon-welcomes-the-authors-of-the-wrong-stuff/

*** - From 10 earmarks in 1981 and a pittance, to over 6,373 earmarks costing $24.2 billion by 2005. And its still the Dems who get blamed for fiscal irresponsibility and/or wanting to tax and spend. I think we need a law prohibiting earmarks. IMHO.

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