Lansing State Journal - U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers: Earmark Process is Insult to Taxpayers
Op-Ed
Lansing State Journal - U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers: Earmark Process is Insult to Taxpayers
By: Congressman Rogers
Protecting the public's tax dollars is a basic duty of all members of Congress. Transparency and accountability are the keys to providing Americans with that protection but, unfortunately, both are proving elusive.
Just last month, I offered a proposal in the Fiscal Year 2008 Intelligence Authorization Act that would have taken funding away from an illegitimate, wasteful earmark that provides tens of millions in taxpayer funding for the National Drug Intelligence Center in Pennsylvania. The House Government Reform Committee has labeled the facility as "an expensive and duplicative use of scarce federal drug enforcement resources," according to the May 8 edition of The Hill newspaper, and it was called a "boondoggle" in a U.S. News and World Report magazine article.
Bringing up this wasteful spending created quite a stir, including an angry tirade that violated House rules by a powerful appropriations chairman, Jack Murtha, D-Pa. It exposed an old-style, 1950s political-boss approach to spending taxes: "Go along to get along and don't talk about it." That's exactly the kind of attitude that has caused Americans to lose faith in how Congress spends their hard-earned tax money.
Even more troubling is that this incident led to the new Democrat majority not allowing any earmarks to be vetted or debated in the process of working on spending bills. Clearly this is a step backwards that takes us back to the image of secret deals in dark smoke-filled rooms.
This incident in the people's house highlighted an arrogance of power at its worse. Both political parties are guilty. No wonder Americans throw up their hands and express their disgust with Congress. If we are ever going to restore the people's trust, Congress must do better.
Earmarks should not be decided in the dark. Every dollar the federal government spends should be vetted, offered in a transparent way, and open for debate. If we turn the lights on the earmark process, we can work to protect Americans against the abuse that has brought us considerable misuse of the public's hard-earned dollars. No more bridges to nowhere. No more $100 hammers. No more rainforests in Iowa. And no more spending of billions in taxpayer funds without full disclosure.
In this time of economic hardship in our state, no dollar can be wasted. Transparency and accountability are crucial to keeping America and Michigan fiscally healthy. We need to turn the lights on and change the way Congress does business with the people's pocketbook.
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