It does not appear relevant, however, to the
earmarking dispute.
Congress, the President, or an agency
earmarking to assist with
If this conclusion is warranted, however, academic
earmarking is not necessarily as bad as Savage thinks.
In summary, during the 1980s and early 1990s, an era of split control,
earmarking was an institutional mechanism to help members attain distributive gains and to become full players in the process.
Any attempt to revive the practice of
earmarking will be detrimental to taxpayers, members of Congress, and to the entire legislative process.
More generally, Savage makes a "live by the sword, die by the sword" point about accepting earmarks when he notes that unlike peer review,
earmarking has neither an institutionalized structure nor a routine process.
Opponents of
earmarking are hampered by the fact that there is no common understanding of just what an "earmark" is.
But Wilson said that without
earmarking the money for specific purposes, state officials would have no guarantee that local districts wouldn't simply spend the money on salary increases for employees.
Lest anyone worry that earmark foe Flake will soften his stance against government waste now that the House has imposed a ban on congressional
earmarking, never fear; in the weeks to come, Rep.
In every one of these cases, the fungibility of money - its ability to be redirected in any direction - results in earmarked funds being diverted to whatever uses their recipients desire, undermining most if not all of the purpose in
earmarking the funds in the first place.
Some Republicans are buying into the argument that the Constitution sanctions
earmarking and that "faceless agency bureaucrats" have too much power over how federal tax dollars are allocated.
Flake, a longtime foe of
earmarking, is inviting the public to weigh in and choose their favorite bad pun related to one of the top ten nominees.
