Anyone for Leftovers? Stimulus Bill still has plenty of Pork Spending

In Chapter 27 of The Enduring Debate, it is made clear that the bill received a majority of its support from only the Democratic Party. The author of this chapter, writes, “Clinton and the Democrats got $1.2 billion to begin hiring 30,000 of 100,000 new teachers…” (1) and goes on to list many other pet projects that Clinton’s party was able to add into the bill. In today’s stimulus bill, support is also from mainly from Democrats, even though President Obama initially called for more bipartisan actions. The bill passed the Senate with a 60-38 vote, and only 2 votes for the bill were made by Republicans. (2) Another connection to the stimulus proposed by President Clinton is the fact that both bills include additions to the already-existing healthcare systems. The 1998 legislation allowed “$1.7 billion in new home-health-care money for Medicare.” (1) The present bill is even more outrageous when dealing with healthcare, supplying $90 billion for aid to state Medicare programs alone. (3)

Chapter 28 discusses why it may be valid to include some earmarks in the stimulus bill. It seems that the Founding Fathers understood the importance of earmarks, because this power “was a way to keep federal power in check” (1) Using earmarks, Senators and Representatives can make sure that their state government has more control of its finances. Senior economist Car Leahey shows a similar philosophy towards this new stimulus bill, saying, “One congressman's earmark is another legislative way to fix a serious problem in his district.” (4) Finally, it is important to see the main purpose behind pork spending in the first place. A lobbyist for a highway project back in the 1990’s said that the pet projects are “the glue that’s going to hold the damn thing together,” (1) when referring the highway project bill. This is still true with the present stimulus bill, which received the minimum number of votes to possibly pass the Senate. Needing a 3/5 majority, exactly sixty members of the Senate voted in favor of the stimulus. (2) Without the earmarks to protect it, this bill could have easily been destroyed in Congress. Instead, the stimulus will be quickly signed by President Obama, and will immediately begin repairing the bleak financial situation that the United States is facing.

1- David T. Canon, John J. Coleman, Kenneth R. Mayer, ed., The Enduring Debate, 4th ed. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006), 161-173

2- United States Senate, U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 111th Congress - 1st Session, March 2009,

3- “Getting to $787 Billion,” Wall Street Journal, 17 February 2009,

4- William Douglas and David Lightman, “Earmark reform? Stimulus bill contains 9,000,” Cleveland.com, 22 February 2009,