Chart of the Day

Sorry that the posts have been few and far between this week, it has been my busiest real work week in quite a while, and that is a good thing. So, I have a backlog of bookmarked articles that I hope to get to soon, but in the meantime, a little congressional muckraking in the form of a chart from one of the few true fiscal conservatives in DC, Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona. Courtesy of Cato:

As shown in the chart below, two-thirds of the earmarks go to a small, exclusive club within the House of those on the appropriations committee, committee chairs, and party leadership. He characterized the appropriations process as a “spoils system,” which is evocative of government corruption of the past, such as Tammany Hall.

But unlike the original Tammany Hall, today’s spoils system is not party-based. Instead, it’s run by an elite and bipartisan group of spending robots within Congress, who pose as representatives of the people when they travel outside the beltway. As Flake implied, it’s odd that the great majority of members and their constituents, who get the short end of the stick from the spoils system, don’t revolt.