June 20, 2010
by: U.S. Senator George LeMieux (R-Fla.)

Government WasteWatch, Spring 2010

Washington has a way of letting problems fester. One of the most consequential is Congress’s insatiable appetite for spending. Last year alone, Washington added $1.4 trillion to the national debt – an amount more than the deficits of the prior four years combined. On the day I was sworn into office, the national debt was $11.8 trillion. Just six months later, it was more than $12.6 trillion. Unless Washington’s lawmakers reverse course on spending, our deficits will continue to rise and our nation’s debt will suffocate prosperity.

There have been some proposals in recent months to freeze spending. While a freeze seems like a good first step, it is not enough to achieve the kind of fiscal discipline we need in Washington.

In the last fiscal year alone, Congress gave the State Department a 32 percent increase, the Environmental Protection Agency a 35 percent increase, and most all other federal departments and agencies saw increases well above inflation.

Not only do these large increases add to the national debt, they represent a missed opportunity to bring efficiencies to government. If agencies’ budgets were frozen for a number of years, it would force them to focus on their core responsibilities, reprioritize asset allocation, and find and eliminate redundancies. Which federal agency or department could not withstand such a review?

Congress has the power to dictate where tax dollars are spent. With this power comes the responsibility of oversight. Unfortunately, Congress conducts much of the former and too little of the latter.

To refocus Congress on the important but neglected role of government oversight, we must eliminate earmarks until spending is brought under control. In the current environment, earmarks are incorrigible. Though earmarks amount to just a fraction of a percent of annual outlays, they command countless hours and resources at two branches of government and now serve as the means to the enormous growth in federal spending.

The current earmark process is the engine that drives the train. Earmarks have become the tools used to build support for the annual appropriations bills that fund the basic functions of our government. Distracting attention from oversight, members often become focused on how much money they are able to get for their district or state. This leads to a general apathy toward fiscal discipline. Show me a lawmaker with a dozen earmarks in a bill and I will show you someone who won’t vote against that bill, no matter how egregious the overall spending.

In an effort to force Washington onto a course of tight fiscal discipline, I support a ban on earmarks. If Congress chose not to earmark, we might have a chance of getting discretionary spending under control.

Unfortunately, an earmark ban holds little hope of passing in the Senate. A vote in March to ban earmarks for one year received only 29 votes.

Very soon, several festering problems will demand Washington’s action. Social Security is now spending more than it takes in; Medicare is on a path to insolvency; and, Medicaid is a failing system to which the Democratic majority just added 16 million more Americans.

A continuation on the current path could bring tremendous harm to our economy. In addition, it will decrease the chances for our children to have a better standard of living than we enjoy today. As the father of four children under the age of seven, I worry that by the time they enter the workforce, our government’s deficit spending and the resulting debt will make opportunities in other countries more appealing than staying here at home. Beyond our fiscal responsibility, we have a moral charge to see that doesn’t happen.

Earmarks are not the problem; they are a symptom of the problem. The main problem is overspending. In order to show the political will to address the rest of our budget crisis, Congress needs to commit to banning earmarks, and we can only hope that this political will can carry forward to addressing the remainder of our nation’s budget crisis.