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A quick entry on earmarks

I haven't posted much lately, mainly because I have been incredibly busy. I feel compelled to write something about earmarks though, if only to point out the absurdity of the coverage of this bill.

Most Americans, myself included, have no understanding of how much much money is spent in the budget per year or how much it takes to actually get a budget passed. Moreover, most Americans, myself included, have no appreciation for how much $1 billion is, let alone $400+ billion (or $700+ billion or whatever). My understanding of Congress, from what little experience I have, is that it's going to take a lot more than talk to get the quid pro quo nature of government spending in line with private enterprise, and in all likelihood, it won't happen. But "earmarks" and "lobbyists" and what have you are necessary evils to get things done. And once this new administration and the markets calm down over what has become a self-fulfilling spiral, maybe things will start turning around so that twenty years from now, we're not worse off than we are now.

What the news reports about earmarks and how much billions are devoted to them fail to advertise is how small a percentage they actually are. The budget is estimated at $410 billion or so and earmarks make up $7.6 billion. That's 1.9%. Considering how inefficient government typically is, the fact that the number got whittled down to this one is amazing in itself. And this 9000 number they keep tossing around is another red herring when you consider how complex and detailed the budget actually is. I say let's see what happens over the next six-eight months and make incremental adjustments along the way. But then again, I'm not the president. And neither is the 24/7 media reporting on the various situations that arise daily.

Full post as published by The Once and Future Lawyer on March 11, 2009 (boomark / email).

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