What 9,000 Earmarks Look Like
Georgia Republican House Representative Tom Price (chairman of the Republican Study Committee) shows us what 9,000 earmarks look like:
(Hat tip to Hot Air.)
Of course, people try to obfuscate what earmarks are, either applying it to all localized spending projects or to only spending items introduced by the very specific earmark process, but the general idea is that it's spending not properly in the Federal domain, introduced to appease specific special interests, or horse-traded to get a particular representative's support for a bill all in seeming contradiction to the overall purpose of a bill.
Because of what I think is overly broad interpretation of the Commerce Clause in the Constitution's Article I, Section 8, such things are not considered outright unconstitutional, but it sure seems to bend the intent of limiting the powers of Congress to a select list of enumerated powers.
It takes something really egregious, and William Rehnquist, to reign in Congress's belief in what it can regulate or spend (see United States v. Lopez 514 U.S. 549, coincidentally a gun rights case).
Josh Poulson
Posted Saturday, Mar 7 2009 07:26 AM