Earmarks

If you've been reading up on politics, you know that there's a stigma on earmarks, or pork-barrel spending, or whatever you want to call it. Anyway, I'm here to DEFEND the use of earmarks. I do agree that wasteful spending is bad, but that doesn't mean all earmarks are bad. On a more interesting note, the definition of wasteful may be different to some. Anyway, these are my reasons:

1. Congress can spend to provide/promote the general welfare.
    Of course "the general welfare" clause is something that's quite controversial.

2. It's less than 2% of discretionary spending.
    I realize that we have to cut spending, but to imply that banning earmarks is a panacea to the deficit is ridiculous.

3. Earmarks, when used PROPERLY, is beneficial to communities.
    If the earmarks can help local communities, it can promote the larger economy.

For some strange reason, the only think tank that shows up on the news is the Cato Institute. Anyway, in short they propose to limit/ban earmarks on the grounds that it promotes corruption. In this sense, I would agree that it promotes corruption, but I believe that greater transparency would offset this.

The problem with deciding what is "wasteful" is quite opinionated. The Bridge to Nowhere is something that most people would agree is wasteful. Funding for research on flying snakes, in my opinion, is not. For the article, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/science/30obflight.html?src=twrhp
Anyway, the article basically says that the Pentagon is funding this research in order to examine the physics of how these snakes "fly". Close minded people would dismiss this as useless, but when people think about the
potential uses for this it's quite amazing. A breakthrough in aerodynamics can lead to a dramatic change in how airplanes work. For those that love war, the new research in aerodynamics can lead to breakthroughs in war planes. Even if the findings wouldn't benefit as much, it doesn't hurt to have more knowledge in how these snakes work.

Edit: 3:50 12/6/10
They should just have a bill only with earmarks, and not filled inside other bills. This reduces the volume of words in any given bill, and is more transparent.