Bill Lee: “if you have been following the circus in this town long enough, you probably remember earmarks, the infamous special…”

“if you have been following the circus in this town long enough, you probably remember earmarks, the infamous special interest spending provision that party leaders used to sprinkle over unpopular legislation, sort of like heavily subsidized sugar. Even if you aren't familiar with this concept, you may be familiar with specific wasteful earmarks, such as the infamous $223 billion ``bridge to nowhere'' in Alaska or the $3.4 million turtle tunnel in Florida, which was precisely what it sounds like, a 13-foot-long underground tunnel that was intended not for people, not for automobiles, not for train traffic but for turtles, or the so-called ``monuments to me,'' buildings that politicians named after themselves. Earmarks were everything Americans couldn't stand about Washington, DC. They enabled corruption, and they facilitated waste. They wreaked of entitlement. They were the swamp, and then they went away for 7 wonderful years and counting. They went away because Republicans banned them after the 2010 election cycle, when the tea party wave rolled through Washington, lifted by an anti-cronyism message. Now some politicians in the House of Representatives are trying to bring earmarks back. Now, I have heard some bad ideas in my time in the Senate, but this one takes the cake. Just like in a horror movie, the swamp thing is coming back to life-- or at least it is trying to--even after we hit it in the face with a shovel.…”