Yes,that's right.I believe every single appropriations bill should be 100% earmarks as Ron Paul says.An earmark simply directs funds to a specific project.It makes the spending transparent.If every part of a spending bill were earmarked,we would know who inserted it and exactly where it's going.A hard earmark is written right in the bill language and is binding by law.A soft earmark is written in the report language or committee report and isn't legally binding,but is treated as such.
If you don't have earmarks,you get things like the TARP where nobody knows where the money went.People confuse earmarks with pork.Pork is wasteful spending.Pork is added onto a bill increasing the total bill amount.Earmarks have no effect on the total bill amount,they only specify where parts of it go.
The total amount of the 8,000+ earmarks in the $410 billion dollar Omnibus bill is only about 1% of the bill.That means 99% of it is available for fraud,waste and abuse as our politicians see fit.Stripping earmarks only reduces transparency and not the amount of spending.
We need pork to be stripped from bills,which will reduce spending.Obama is running around on his high horse about earmark reform.Exactly what we don't need.Pork reform is what we do need.More to come...
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