Defense Bill has over 2,000 earmarks

Something not pointed out in news stories.

Earmarks are one time bulk payment and are not tracked like grants are (the normal CORRECT way to track government spending, compliance, and evaluation).

Money is out the door and is done with pretty much as the recipient sees fit.

Not the usual fare when they simply plant explosives next to a passing vehicle and blow it up. EFPs are projectile weapons instead, and they are nasty indeed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosively_formed_penetrator

they have no intention of doing what's best for the country, only what is best for themselves.

and sometimes a mass layoff, just like in the manufacturing sector, may be what is needed.

Scare some of them into straightening up and doing what is best for the people and not their wallets.

When it comes to earmarks, Democrats are equally as to blame for them as are Republicans.

Check out last year's Appropriation for OMA dollars, and tell me:

- Where's the earmark?
- Who's responsible for that earmark?

"Operation and Maintenance, Army

For expenses, not otherwise provided for, necessary for the operation and maintenance of the Army, as authorized by law; and not to exceed $11,478,000 can be used for emergencies and extraordinary expenses, to be expended on the approval or authority of the Secretary of the Army, and payments may be made on his certificate of necessity for confidential military purposes, $22,397,581,000: Provided, That of funds made available under this heading, $2,000,000 shall be available for Fort Baker, in accordance with the terms and conditions as provided under the heading `Operation and Maintenance, Army', in Public Law 107-117."

of 'employment' in their districts; it is a losing game. It is a system rife with bribes and kickbacks from the recipients, all of them employing lobbyists to whisper in the congressmans ear, "It will get you votes at home, votes at home, votes at home.....".

The Dems are just as guilty as the rest. Earmarks should be declared what they really are, corporate welfare.

The Defense Dept. is the largest spender in the Federal Government, and then on top of what they actually ask for, they get all kinds of money they are forced to spend on projects uncalled for in the budget. It is a shame that our soldiers are getting things they don't need or use, when the requests for the tools they actually need go unheard.

I wish they ran the Dept. of Health and Human Services, or Education like that. Just throw billions at them, and hope they spend it on something 'nice'.

Earlier in the year, they were calling renewed funding of some competitive medical research granting programs at DoD "earmarks". They're actually programs supporting ongoing medical research but have to apply for renewed funding each year.

http://cdmrp.army.mil/

All these research programs are peer reviewed, open and accountable to the public for how funds are spent, results of research, etc. They're a vital part of many national medical research programs,open for granting to researchers at universities in all 50 states. But for some reason, they were suddenly labeled as "earmarks" as if they were "pork barrel spending".

Its possible the GOP is labeling some of the funding they don't like as "earmarks" just to get rid of it.