Ron Paul and Barack Obama on Earmarks

Earmarks have come to be recognized as the epitome of government waste in Washington. This has been a growing phenomenon over the last several years, but reached new heights on the campaign trail over the last two years. Both John McCain (R-AZ) and Barack Obama criticized earmarks while running for President.

I used the web archives to grab quotes from the pages of both McCain and Obama while they were seeking the Presidency. McCain's site had the following:

As president, John McCain will work to ensure that money spent by Congress, and contributed by hardworking American taxpayers, is used wisely and prudently on legitimate national priorities, not squandered on wasteful pet projects and special interest earmarks...

Year after year, powerful members of Congress divert taxpayer dollars to special interest pet projects with little or no national value...

Every dollar irresponsibly spent by Congress is a dollar diverted from pressing national priorities including lowering the tax burden on working Americans, supporting the men and women fighting the war on terror, making good on the nation's financial commitments at home, including to senior citizens, and paying down the national debt.

And Barack Obama said this:

Obama introduced and passed bipartisan legislation that would require more disclosure and transparency for special-interest earmarks. Obama believes that spending that cannot withstand public scrutiny cannot be justified. Obama will slash earmarks to no greater than year 2001 levels and ensure all spending decisions are open to the public.

Obama also joined McCain and other Senators to explicitly call for a one year moratorium on earmarks early last year in an amendment to the Budget resolution for FY2009. This amendment, sponsored by Jim DeMint (R-SC), failed to pass on a vote of 29-71. Obama was one of only five Democrats to support the amendment. The other Democrats who joined him were Clinton (D-NY), McCaskill (D-MO), Feingold (D-WI), and Bayh (D-IN).

As has been noted in the news this past week, Obama has signed the latest Omnibus Appropriations Act which featured 8,814 earmarks according to the group Taxpayers for Common Sense. Obama made the following statements this week upon his signing of the legislation:

Now, let me be clear: Done right, earmarks have given legislators the opportunity to direct federal money to worthy projects that benefit people in their districts, and that's why I've opposed their outright elimination...

But the fact is that on occasion, earmarks have been used as a vehicle for waste, and fraud, and abuse...

I recognize that Congress has the power of the purse. As a former senator, I believe that individual members of Congress understand their districts best. And they should have the ability to respond to the needs of their communities.

And this brings me to Ron Paul (R-TX)...

According to the Taxpayers for Common Sense, Paul has eleven "solo earmarks" totaling nearly $15M and thirty-three "solo and with other members" totaling nearly $64M. In fact, Paul is one of the biggest "offenders" when it comes to earmarks in this bill. (Only 57 of 451 members and former members of the House have zero earmarks.) So, how does Paul, one of the most outspoken fiscal conservatives in Washington, defend this? Well, Paul spoke on the House floor to address this issue (full text available linking here and here). Here are some highlights:

It's very popular today to condemn earmarks... even if you voted against all the earmarks... you don't save any money... that money then goes to the executive branch... [Congress is] supposed to tell the people how we are spending the money... Earmarks really allow transparency, and we know exactly where the money is being spent... what we need are more earmarks.

Paul goes on in his speech to discuss the lack of transparency in the creation and spending of money by the Fed. He raises some interesting and fundamental issues. The Constitution grants Congress the power to tax and spend. While Paul clearly has issue with the scope of spending by the Federal government both in terms of volume and purpose, he is looking to the Constitution to support his earmarks. But, it is also interesting to note that Paul voted against the Omnibus Appropriations Act along with all but sixteen Republicans - including some of the other most prolific GOP earmarkers. The full list of earmarks can be found for download here.

Does this make Ron Paul a hypocrite? It's hard to say. His arguments for earmarks do not contain contradictions, nor does his general stance on spending. It is not at all uncommon for members of Congress who oppose legislation to insert provisions or propose amendments to make the legislation "less bad" in their view. It seems like a bit of a dirty trick in some ways, but that's part of the game.