The Triad Business Journal takes a look at earmarks by N.C. legislators. Sen. Elizabeth Dole leads the way with $30.2 million in requests, followed by fellow Sen. Richard Burr with $17.5 miilion. Those figures don’t count the additional $25.2 million in requests the senators co-sponsored.
Yes, I realize Dole and Burr are Republicans, but I’ll still note the comment from Rep. Mel Watt, who made $11.9 million in requests:
Watt said he relies on local governments, universities and other institutions to prioritize what they bring to him.
“I can’t ever remember getting a request I didn’t think had merit,” he said. “It’s operating in a system that has been in place for a while. If something is going to happen anyway, I want to see that the people in my district get it as opposed to somewhere else in the country.”
Watt also said the debate about earmarks has been “much ado about nothing.”
“It’s money we are going to appropriate anyway,” he said. “The question is who’s going to get the benefit of these funds.”
That doesn’t sound like a man who’s serious about reducing earmarks to me. For what it’s worth, President Bush has a few earmarks of his own, including “$3 million for a forest conservation project in Minnesota, $2.1 million for a neutrino detector at the South Pole and $28 million for General Electric and Siemens to do research on hydrogen-fuel turbines.”
At the very least, those requests that can put to rest the notion that Bush is destroying the environment. Also proves, as Antiplanner sees it, big government’s going to be around for a while longer.
