Trick: There Are a Dreadful Number of Earmarks
The WasteWatcher
For the third year in a row, members of Congress grossly increased the cost and number of earmarks. CAGW’s 2019 Congressional Pig Book exposed 282 spine-chilling earmarks, an increase of 21.6 percent from the 232 in fiscal year (FY) 2018. The cost of earmarks in FY 2019 was a horrifying $15.3 billion, an increase of 4.1 percent from the $14.7 billion in FY 2018. Even more frightening was the 125 percent increase in the cost of earmarks and the 73 percent increase in the number of earmarks since FY 2017.