How earmarks can help fix Congress

Pork is good

The Capitol building.
(Image credit: Illustrated | iStock)

The House of Representatives has repealed its decade-old ban on earmarks, which allow individual representatives to direct money towards projects in their districts. The idea has been "pushed by Democrats trying to entice Republicans to support a major infrastructure package and other spending bills," reports The Wall Street Journal.

The argument against earmarks, of course, is that they enable "wasteful" spending, like the infamous "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska. But this is great news. Earmarks grease the wheels of politics, and they help tie the United States together as a functioning society.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.