Should You Judge a Book by Its Cover?

Chapter 27-
The excessive amount of money that is being given to random unnecessary causes in the stimulus bill because of the earmarks is beyond unreasonable; it’s unacceptable. Some of these ridiculous spending sprees include “$300 million to buy "green" cars for federal employees” and “a tax credit toward the purchase of NEVs, which closely resemble golf carts in appearance. They are considered green vehicles because they use an electric battery instead of gasoline.” (1) The most absurd part of this is that the NEVs are not even legal on the highway because they can only reach up to 20 to 25 miles per hour. This waste of taxpayer’s hard-earned money is almost as good as the earmarks contained in the 1997 $520 billion omnibus spending bill such as the “$1.2 million for a project called ‘Building America’; and $400,000 for another called ‘Rebuilding America.’” (2) Did they really have that little faith in the first plan that they are already building funds for the second plan? Not only should Congress be ashamed for putting these ludicrous earmarks into the stimulus plan, but the President of the United States should be ashamed for signing it. Last, but not least, we should think about how OUR money- the money that we are earning during an economic recession- is being used when we are in the voting booths during the Presidential and Legislative elections.
Chapter 28-
While “pork barreling” and earmarks are criticized every day in the media and by organizations like the Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), there are actually some cases were the earmarks ARE necessary. This was the case in the 1997 omnibus spending plan with the so called “$3 million “Black Hole” from the Pentagon where they wanted to create an observatory in South America in order to do research at the University of North Carolina.” (2) Not only could this research be very beneficial, but it can only be done in the southern hemisphere. One example of this in our current stimulus package is a $4 billion dollar earmark that goes to law enforcement. “The COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) hiring program would receive $1 billion, enough money to hire and train 13,000 new police officers and fund 75% of their salaries for three years.” (3) This seems like an essential use of American’s tax dollars. This money will not go to only one state; some of the states that stand to benefit from this earmark are Iowa, Maine and North Carolina. People should not just cast off earmarks because of they are considered earmarks. Even the media director of CAGW, Jim Campi, admits that they do not do research about the reasons behind the earmarks. As people of the United States we should be responsible and find out what is going through legislative member’s minds when they decide to insert these earmarks. We “should not judge a book by its cover” and investigate the cause before we decide if it is worth our tax money.
Sources:
(1) http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/economy/2009/02/19/finding-the-pork-in-the-obama-stimulus-bill.html
(2) The Enduring Debate Classic and Contemporary Readings in American Politics, Fourth Edition. New York: W. W. Norton, 2005.
(3) http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-02-04-crimemoney_N.htm