One of the congressional races I kept a close eye on was the race in Wisconsin's 8th district, where Republican Sean Duffy prevailed. In Politico this morning, Duffy explains why he opposes earmark spending.
Critics and supporters of earmarks mock our effort to ban them. They say earmarks are "small ball," making up only a fraction of the budget. They complain that eliminating earmarks is meaningless.The Democrats want to continue earmark spending.
They're wrong.
For starters, it's staggering that anyone thinks billions of dollars is trivial. Beyond the cost, no elected official should be able to sneak earmarks into a larger bill to unilaterally direct taxpayer dollars to pet projects without any accountability or transparency.
Earmarks themselves are used to grease the wheels for more spending, more borrowing and more government. While individual earmarks may be small relative to the total budget, they have a dramatic impact when used to buy votes for much larger - and much more expensive - pieces of legislation.
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