In a November 4, 2013 blog published in The Hill titled “Congress should return to responsible earmark policy,” former Rep. George Nethercutt (R-Wa.) claimed that failure to do so would create “purist legislators who largely disdain compromise, resist seniority, and refuse Congressional earmarks.” 

Rep. Nethercutt is correct that while earmarks account for a small amount of the federal spending, the reasons for the Congressional earmark moratorium have little to do with the expense. Earmarking led to corruption, including the incarceration of members and staff.  The process also led to an equitable distribution of projects, with the vast majority being handed out to member of the Appropriations Committee on which Rep. Nethercutt once served.  Votes being traded in exchange for parochial interests as earmarks are only a symptom of the larger problem of uncontrolled government spending in Washington.  Sen. Mark Udall (R-CO), also an avid supporter of earmark elimination, once stated that "Lawmakers are so afraid of losing earmarked funding that they're sometimes pressured into supporting a vicious cycle of increased spending.”

For example, Congress approved 9,499 earmarked projects in fiscal year 2010, totaling $15.9 billion, prompting the Republican majority to spearhead an earmark moratorium in 2010. Taxpayers were hopeful that the practice of earmarks would come to an end with the passage of the moratorium, though an analysis completed by Citizens Against Government Waste of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) identified 111 earmarks – 59 of which matched exact language from previous earmarks.  A 2012 report completed by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and her staff also identified 115 earmarks worth $834 million in the NDAA alone.  Two years later, Sen. McKaskill and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) introduced S. 1930, The Earmark Elimination Act, on November 30, 2011, which would build upon and make permanent the earmark moratorium of 2010.

According to Rep. Nethercutt, moving American forward means restoring “responsible” earmark policy in order to honor American taxpayers and other important government institutions by accepting the “80 percent victory” system made prominent under President Ronald Reagan.  This “win-some-lose-some” mentality never really worked in favor of taxpayers.  Rep. Nethercutt failed to mention how lawmakers continued to sully the political process by directing chunks of the federal budget back to their home districts and states to promote their own political agendas.  This corrupting influence even tempts members who might otherwise want to defend taxpayers, as peer pressure lures them into becoming part of the problem.

President Reagan envisioned limited government and a sense of individual responsibility that would motivate Congress to govern accordingly, not an atmosphere of fiscal negligence and aberrant behavior at the expense of American taxpayers.  Rather than politicians asking how they can hold onto political power, they should instead be identifying ways they can reform government and return both money and power back to the American people.  That does not include vote-trading between members that significantly increases wasteful spending.  A permanent ban on earmarks would be a powerful step toward establishing a culture of fiscal restraint and trust in Washington.  That would be a 100 percent victory for both Congress and the American people.