{"id":1706,"date":"2010-01-25T11:35:42","date_gmt":"2010-01-25T18:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2010\/01\/25\/earmarks-galore\/"},"modified":"2010-01-25T11:33:31","modified_gmt":"2010-01-25T18:33:31","slug":"earmarks-galore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2010\/01\/25\/earmarks-galore\/","title":{"rendered":"Earmarks galore"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crush of earmarks in defense bill gives yet another lesson in horse-trading<\/a><\/p>\n

Journalists talk about congressional earmarks in terms of lobbyists’ shenanigans, or legislators helping themselves and their pals.<\/p>\n

But pause for a moment and consider that there are 97 pages listing nearly 1,000 congressional earmarks in the 543-page report by the House-Senate conferees on the $626 billion defense appropriations bill signed by President Obama this month.<\/p>\n

They cover every category from procurement to operations and maintenance to research and development, with the last group alone spanning more than 77 of those pages. Who is to say what kind of impact these separate transfers of what may be $5 billion will have on our defense posture — and on our intelligence operations, since that money is also in the bill?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wait… didn’t Obama say he would not tolerate “pork barrel” and “earmark” legislation?<\/p>\n

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