It's Got All the Earmarks of Rampant Corruption

Why? Because it IS rampant corruption. Earmarks, that is. If you didn't know what they were before (and I sure was one who didn't), we all know now. These little back room deals that result in even more bloated appropriation pork than usual are quite the rage right now. In 1994, the Republicans took control of Congress. And all that wasted federal pork barrel projects were of course dumped, because conservatives are, if nothing else, bullish on spending issues. Cut taxes and stop spending our hard earned dollars. That's been their motto forever, right?

oops. Somebody forgot to tell them. Their first year in control, in 1994, they steared through 4,155 earmarks of pork for a nice total of $29 billion. Well they were just finding their way around, being new and all. So certainly that number went down once they had solid control and knew where their offices were.

So of course noone should be surprised that ten years later, the Republican-controlled Congress had chopped that pork down to . . . oh, wait. No, it looks like the numbers went up. Hmmm. In fact, they added over 10,000 earmarks of pork for a 2004 total of 14,211. And that $29 billion wasted federal money? Peanuts compared to the $53 billion of our money that went down the drain in 2004.

Yup, Conservatives and fiscal responsibility go hand in hand.

Except, of course, when they've chopped off our hands in their wild spree to grab our money.