Earmarks

Did anyone else see the Bill Moyer's Journal last Friday, 22 Feb? He had a very interesting segment on earmarks.

The PBS website has links to two organizations who track earmarks in the budget. Check out:

http://www.taxpayer.net/

or

http://sunlightfoundation.com/


From the first one I learned the following levels of earmarks from some politicians of interest:
Feinstein $295 M
Boxer $92 M
Hillary Clinton $342 M
Obama $92 M
Dreier $20 M
Schiff $12 M
McCain - ZERO

In many cases the congress people receive large campaign contributions from the companies who receive earmarks - so it can be just a legal way of bribing the congress.

This immediately ties the issue into Campaign Finance Reform. We've got to get public funding for politicians. It will be much cheaper than the $12 B of earmarks in the budget.

Today I sent emails to Dreier, Clinton and Obama asking for a list of their earmarks (you can also get a list from the first web URL). One of the sites says that Dreier is one of the few who actually publish their list of earmarks. It will be interesting to see what comes back.

Hillary's office says they only respond to people from NY. I replied that she is running for president and needs to reply to anyone.

Maybe you can email your congressman or candidate and ask them about their earmarks. Maybe we can embarrass them into reform - but they are hard to embarrass.

Rody