Earmarks – A Little Differently

   First of all, there is a difference between <appropriate> and <allocate>.  From day one I have crabbed about the amount of monies Congress blows through.  They have the purse strings and let there be no doubt of that fact.  Doesn’t matter what party the president is from; Congress ‘appropriates’ monies to spend.

   Now we, as the sheeple we are (self included), have been told over and over again that earmarks by individual congress persons are bad.  I know I’ve bought into this myself.  Didn’t matter if it was McaCain or Obama… they both talked constantly about the nasty ole earmarks. 

   Here is the dirty little secret.  If a given congress person from your district  does not seek an allocation (earmark) for something in their district, then that money goes back into the pot and is doled out by the government.  There is NO savings if the individual congress person does not seek and get the allocation, because the money has already been appropriated.  The money is there and the money is going to be spent, either by ‘your’ representative or by the government as a whole. 

   As has always been the case, Congress needs to rein in spending, e.g. appropriations, so the allocating can be brought under control.  Ders a whoooole lotta allocatin goin on out thea.  (spoken in my best southern drawl).