Earmarks and Exports

This is stupid. This is stupid policy AND stupid politics. President Obama knows as well as anyone that earmarks have nothing to do with total spending.

Earmarks do not - repeat DO NOT - increase the budget.

Earmarks simply designate that a particular portion of a budgeted amount is going to this place rather than that place. A hundred million bucks for national parks improvements? OK, fine, says Rand Paul, but $10 million of that has to go to improve the campgrounds at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.

That $10 million for Mammoth Cave is an earmark. It does not increase the total national parks budget one penny. It actually reduces the amount of money available for other parks.

That President Obama is wasting his time and precious bully pulpit on bullshit that actually makes people even stupider about the budget is beyond belief.



Full transcript here.