The process, not the end result

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:13:31 -0400

David Williams worries about even the mundane earmarks.

As noted previously, many of the earmark requests from North Carolina's Congressional delegation favor such workaday projects as fixing bridges, dredging harbors, and testing local water systems.

Those don't attract the same attention as a teapot museum, but the vice president of Citizens Against Government Waste said they're just as problematic.

"A lot of these projects are very mundane, where people might go, 'That actually looks like it might work,'" he said. "But the money isn't going to where it's most needed in the country, it's going to the places with the most influential members of Congress."

As an example, he said that many local towns need help with a new water system. But since earmarks are determined by clout, the towns that are actually the neediest may not be the ones to get funding.

Williams said it is the process of earmarking, not the end results, that matters.

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The process, not the end result