Return of the Swamp Creatures Democrats prepare to bring back earmarks. Republicans should resist the temptation. By Kimberley Strassel
https://www.wsj.com/articles/return-of-the-swamp-creatures-11613690674?mod=opinion_featst_pos1
Washington doesn’t usually make it easy to pinpoint the moment when things went wrong. So thanks to Rep. Rosa DeLauro for publicly heralding the return of the swamp.
The announcement actually came from a spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee, which the Connecticut Democrat oversees. “Chair DeLauro supports Member-directed funding for community projects,” Evan Hollander told HuffPost this week. For those uninitiated in Washington doublespeak, earmarks are back.
A few other English words to describe what’s returning: Pork. Logrolling. Sleaze. Bridges to nowhere. Republicans banned earmarks in February 2011 after the term became synonymous with Congress’s embarrassing habit. The late Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma had led a yearslong campaign to expose earmarks as a “gateway drug” to greater spending and corruption. In the face of a tea-party revolt, his colleagues finally chose wisdom.
Democrats are choosing power. According to reports, Ms. DeLauro and Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick Leahy will soon announce that earmarks are welcome in annual spending bills. Why would Democrats risk such a move? Politico explains that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has reassured his party that it won’t suffer, since the effort will be “bipartisan.” Democrats are banking on spend-thirsty Republicans to provide cover.
The question is whether the GOP will succumb, handing the Democratic leadership a uniquely powerful tool in today’s narrowly divided Congress. Republicans may botch their first opportunity to draw a stark contrast in governance, wield some real power, and energize their base.
The temptation is real. GOP earmarkers have been honing high-minded constitutional arguments. They claim it is urgent that Congress reclaim authority from the executive branch by flexing “the power of the purse.” Some Republicans contend earmarks will be the party’s best way to rein in federal bureaucrats doling out Covid relief money.
This amounts to reducing Congress’s power to pork—never mind the lawmakers who managed to create Social Security, build the federal highway system and produce civil-rights legislation—all without earmarks for teapot museums or indoor rainforests. Earmarks are a largely modern phenomenon. They gained a toehold in the 1980s before exploding in the 1990s and early 2000s. In fiscal 2005, Congress included nearly 14,000 earmarks in its spending bills. Far from making Congress work, they undermine its function. Earmarks are the prizes of the most powerful members and the tools leaders and lobbyists use to shut down debate and compel votes.
The latter is why Democrats want them back now. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer preside over the slimmest of majorities. As Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman tweeted about the earmark return: “This is a BIG legislative development. . . . Earmarks help the leadership govern. People who don’t listen to leadership don’t get them. People who do, do.” So next time West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is the one vote standing against a radical legislative proposal, Mr. Schumer will have the means to threaten or entice him into submission.
No doubt Ms. DeLauro will insist that earmarks on her watch will be cleaner and more transparent. In reality there could be no more dangerous moment in congressional history to reintroduce earmarking. Congress’s budget process is more dysfunctional than ever. It consists of ignoring duties all year, waiting until government is on the verge of shutdown, writing an omnibus bill in the dead of night, and holding a vote on it a few minutes after release. Those “omnis” are already a disgrace of riders, pet projects, tax giveaways and wasteful spending. Imagine what they’ll look like with earmarks in the mix.
It doesn’t have to happen. In a Washington dominated by Democrats, this is a rare moment when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy hold the whip hand, as well as the ability to do their party some real good.
Earmarks are traditionally inserted into spending bills. Unlike in the reconciliation process, which Democrat are using for Covid relief, those bills require 60 Senate votes. The GOP can continue to enforce an earmark ban for its members. More important, Mr. McConnell can declare that spending bills with earmarks will be dead on arrival. They won’t go through a bipartisan appropriations process, and won’t get 60 votes.
Democrats may balk and even threaten a shutdown. Republicans should call that bluff. Let Democrats own earmarks. Let them explain to voters that they are willing to bring government to a standstill over their demand for pork and pet projects like the Tallahassee Turtle Tunnel or Boston’s Big Dig. Let them define themselves as the party of self-dealers. And let that further cast doubt on their other claims of reform.
The alternative is for GOP leaders to bow to their own big spenders, further eroding their claim to be fiscal conservatives and further inflaming distrust in the GOP establishment and widening the rift within the party. Already, Rep. Ted Budd and Sen. Ted Cruz are soliciting GOP names on a letter opposing a return to a system designed to “buy and sell votes and reward favors.”
Earmarks are the kind of definitional difference that can help put the GOP back in congressional power—especially given how toxic earmarks remain with the public. Opposing them is an easy call.
Write to kim@wsj.com.
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