“Maybe the Republicans are listening, after all,” said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. Tea Party activists won their first big power struggle with the GOP establishment this week, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would bow to pressure to support a ban on earmarks. McConnell “and other old-guard Republicans” had initially resisted relinquishing earmarks, which enable congressmen and senators to funnel federal funds to pet projects in their own districts, such as Alaska’s famous “bridge to nowhere.” But facing an influx of Tea Party–backed Republicans into both houses, McConnell reversed himself, saying he doesn’t want to be guilty of “ignoring the wishes of the American people.” It’s a wise decision on both political and pragmatic grounds: From 1994—when Republicans won control of Congress—to 2005, the number of earmarks exploded from about 1,500 to about 14,000, “before voters ousted what had become the Grand Old Pork Party.” And though earmarks represent a small portion of federal spending, they serve as legal bribes to legislators “for passing trillion-dollar-plus budget bills.”
“The reality” of earmarks “doesn’t live up to the political hype,” said Newsday. Obviously, voters want spending cuts, but the $15.9 billion spent this year on earmarks amounts to less than 1 percent of the $3.7 trillion federal budget.
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