Posted by Joseph Y. Calhoun, III

President Obama has made a point of saying that the stimulus bill will not contain any earmarks, i.e. pork spending. One of my main objections to the bailouts and the stimulus is that it gives politicians and lobbyists too much say in how the money gets spent. Regardless of the President’s good intentions, there is simply no way that this much money can be doled out without political considerations playing a factor.

We’re already seeing politicians seeking favors for their constituents from the TARP:

Two Illinois congressmen urged the Treasury in October to avoid taking any regulatory action against a struggling bank in their state, illustrating the aggressive efforts some politicians are taking to help hometown lenders during the bank crisis.

In a letter they sent, Democratic Reps. Danny K. Davis and Luis Gutierrez also asked government officials to provide financial aid to National Bank of Commerce, based in the Chicago suburb of Berkeley, Ill.

To regulators credit, the request was denied and the bank in question failed soon after. Barney Frank had a little better luck:

Troubled OneUnited Bank in Boston didn’t look much like a candidate for aid from the Treasury Department’s bank bailout fund last fall.

The Treasury had said it would give money only to healthy banks, to jump-start lending. But OneUnited had seen most of its capital evaporate. Moreover, it was under attack from its regulators for allegations of poor lending practices and executive-pay abuses, including owning a Porsche for its executives’ use.

Nonetheless, in December OneUnited got a $12 million injection from the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. One apparent factor: the intercession of Rep. Barney Frank, the powerful head of the House Financial Services Committee.

Mr. Frank, by his own account, wrote into the TARP bill a provision specifically aimed at helping this particular home-state bank. And later, he acknowledges, he spoke to regulators urging that OneUnited be considered for a cash injection.

I guess the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee has a little more influence.

What about the stimulus bill? The lobbyists have hit the Hill hard and fast seeking cash for their clients. Here’s a partial list of the lobbying efforts (thanks to Doug Terry):

-AASHTO The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials 5280 projects and $65.9b, up 3 fold since their original proposal in 2008
-the Association of Zoos and Aquariums “called for shovel-ready zoo and aquarium infrastructure projects to be eligible for federal stimulus funding
-Michael Kaiser, pres, JFK Ctr for the Performing Arts: “the arts community is “quietly falling apart”…”this perfect storm has already weakened the fabric of our nation’s arts ecology.”
-The American Society of Travel Agents: Loans to build their businesses
-ACORN: extended unemployment insurance, food stamps, $7b-$10b school infrastructure in poor neighborhoods, $3.6b for HUD
-”The university chiefs seek an additional ‘federal infusion of capital’–as much as $45 billion–to build new facilities, especially ‘green’ ones.
-Service Employees International Union, the Sierra Club, the Economic Policy Institute: Green Initiatives $1trillion
-Democratic governors: $1trillion state budget shortfalls
-United States Conference of Mayor’s wish list, $180b including:
$4.8 million for a polar bear exhibit in Rhode Island;
$13 million for Las Vegas to improve pedestrian access to a casino, as well as additional funds for a Las Vegas museum on organized crime;
$6 million for snowmaking equipment in Minnesota; and
$100 million to allow Philadelphia to clear land for a casino that has not yet been approved.
 
-passenger-rail lobbyists, Amtrak
-National Association of Realtors and National Association of Homebuilders: support for residential construction
-Real Estate Roundtable, the National Asso­ciation of Industrial and Office properties, and indi­vidual companies, commercial real estate
-YWCA, opportunities for women
-Latino Coalition, opportunities for Hispanics
-American Shore and Beach Preservation Association
-14 private companies for $1b subsidy for lithium batteries for GM

There are a number of efforts on line to go through the stimulus package looking for pork. Readthestimulus.org is organized by The Heritage Foundation:

We have all heard words of an era of increased transparency. With nearly a trillion dollars under debate in the proposed stimulus package, such transparency would be most useful right now: before we as a nation make irrevocable decisions about how to deal with the economic crisis that we face together.

Unfortunately, Congress remains mired in old procedures and processes, and almost seems to go out of its way to make it difficult for citizens to be able to read and understand legislation as it makes its way through the process of becoming law. The web makes great things possible: if it chose, Congress could easily make fully searchable, web-friendly versions of pending legislation available for citizens to comment upon.

But, it has not. And since nothing official along these lines has been forthcoming for the stimulus bill, this site aims to fill that gap, and make available as much information as possible about this critical legislation. With support from our partner organizations (see the left sidebar), we are presenting the various documents which together make up the stimulus bill in searchable format. Browse through a document of your choice, or use the search function to drill down to the topics that interest you most. And on any page of any document, you can contribute your own comments and thoughts — and read those by fellow citizens.

I’ve read through most of the tax side of the bill, but frankly, I haven’t read much on the spending side. The bill is now 1588 pages and it will pass, so why waste time reading the thing? I just assume it is a wish list of things that politicians have wanted to spend money on all along and they now see an opportunity to make all their dreams come true. Will it have earmarks? I guess if you define earmarks to mean stuff that absolutely no one can defend ever, then it won’t have any. If you define pork barrel spending as things that the federal government isn’t authorized by the Constitution to spend money on, then the entire bill is pork.