Bring Back Earmarks
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July 27 (Bloomberg) -- Do we miss earmarks yet? Though it’sonly July, the second session of the 112th U.S. Congress alreadythreatens to eclipse the first in wholesale anomie. It tookCongress months to pass even that most rudimentary conveyor ofpork -- a transportation bill -- and that constituted a raresuccess.
Earmarks were accused of many ills over the years, butnever of aiding and abetting such deep paralysis. If anything,they greased the gears of the Capitol, enabling even a broken-down legislative machine to spit out appropriations for roadrepair every so often. Was that so bad?