[May 16, 2015] Just out in the news … for political junkies … is the latest edition of The Pig Book by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW). As described by the authors, the Congressional Pig Book is an “annual compilation of the pork-barrel projects in the [United States] federal budget.” What it really does is tell the story of corruption in the legal political process and failed leadership at the highest levels of government to curb it.
U.S. Congress members disagree with CAGW’s assessment and in fact the disagreement is backed up with “facts.” To give their side of the argument, our politicians called these pork-barrel projects by their legal name … earmarks. Media outlets have reported on this book and are quick to point out, like our politicians have said, that the total number of earmarks declined significantly since President Obama came into office and this is a sign of greater transparency and less corruption.
According to The Pig Book, however, what has been reported in the media only tells part of the story. While the total numbers of earmarks are down, the total dollars in earmarks have jumped over 50 percent over just last year. Yet, according to Congress, earmarks have been eliminated – if you use the definition used by Congress. What we have is different standards by which to measure corruption and government inefficiency. You can read the report for yourself (link here).
What this is really about is waste and abuse of taxpayer money. To use the military as an example, the M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank has had $120 Million earmarked for upgrades in the 2015 budget. Yet, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff says that the Army has enough tanks to meet the country’s needs and would prefer to focus on the next generation tank rather than waste money on the current M1 upgrade program.
Thus, we have billions of dollars in budgetary funds spent on programs that have little need and little or no explanation on the merits. Unsurprisingly, ultimately there is a benefit to the politicians who lobbied for it to be included in legislation as an earmark or pork-barrel project – depending on your viewpoint.
While there is no direct benefit to the individual politician, it does help the voters who are more likely to vote again for that politician regardless of political party. This is, of course, legal … although morally it smells of corruption.
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[1] http://cagw.org/reporting/pig-book