Earmarks Quotes

Yes, it's true that earmarks are only 1 percent of all federal spending, but earmarks have a cultural effect on Congress that is much larger than their cost. It fuses Congress together with lobbyists and creates a culture of government spending as a means to re-election, which bleeds into other areas. - Brian Riedl

We now have a situation where billions of dollars of federal funds are allocated not on the basis of where it is most needed and can be spent most effectively, but according to who's sloshing the (campaign contribution) money around so they can get the earmarks. - Norm Ornstein

We know that appropriators will fight these cutbacks. But by eliminating earmarks, we can stop the horse trading that grows agency budgets. - Eric Cantor

We have a clear example here that earmarks caused harm. Because we siphoned off funds to go to parochial projects, we have put people in harm's way and exposed them to greater risk. Congress needs to put its house in order and target their funding to where there's the greatest need. - Steve Ellis

Under this bill, Duke Cunningham still would be able to get away with trading bribes for earmarks. - Keith Ashdown

Those 2,966 earmarks are a symptom of a disease that is preventing our troops from getting the tools they need to prosecute the war on terror. - Keith Ashdown

This is very good news. Three hundred million is one of the largest earmarks in the history of the New Starts program. We got one-fifth of the national pot. That's really good. - Christopher Boylan

This has all the earmarks of corruption, especially with the double-dipping by his highest aides. I can't recall any other governor ever allowing that. Governors always make employees go off the government payroll when they start doing political work. But not Arnold. If a Democrat were doing this stuff, the Republicans would be screaming their heads off. - Larry Berg