Budget Spending & Earmarks

I think earmarks are worthy of a fight. By that I mean I think year-to-year we throw too much money away on earmark spending. I would like to imagine that I don't send so much extra money to the Federal Government each year in taxes that politicians can fund their little local projects that have nothing to do with the scope of national programs that are made more obvious to the public.

Having said that, I think that John McCain is making a big deal about the current earmark spending. You here this message all of the time now. "Come on John, earmarks and less than 1% of the total budget being proposed." That still amounts to a lot of money. Enough money, in fact, to bail out a good number of families on the eastern seaboard. I digress.

I still think earmarks are worthy of a fight. Here is why: Obama said he would fight earmark spending. He even got specific about how: Now-President Obama then candidate Obama said he would go through the budget line-by-line and deal with earmarks. Having said that Congress handed him the equivalent of 7 sub-budgets all wrapped up in one in hopes to bury him in paperwork the same way that he did to them with the bailout budget. And it looks like earmark spending as a battle topic will be all but ignored. This is offensive.

I hear people say that we don't have time to be petty. I disagree. Economies move slowly. This is the time to put everything under the looking glass and ensure that we are not going down the wrong road. Tell me, honestly: if you are under financial pressure, do you spend more faster, or slow down and weigh how you intend to spend each and every dollar? Hello, Congress? Wake up!