Maryland's Ugly Earmarks The Maryland General Assembly just ended its annual session facing the prospect of having to address another $1 billion budget gap without the benefit of the $3 billion federal stimulus that helped it to avoid more drastic cuts.

Meanwhile, in the parallel universe of the U.S. Congress, the Baltimore Sun reports that Maryland’s Congressional Delegation has requested more than $1 billion “earmarks” funding for special projects in the state.

Maryland’s state lawmakers’ spending is held in check by the requirement to balance the state’s budget. Not so our folks in Washington. From the list of earmarks, it looks like some of the state’s members of congress have never met a program that they don’t think deserving.

Bringing money home to their districts is what congressmen do and it makes them friends. This can be a good thing especially in hard times when state funding isn’t available for otherwise deserving projects. There is something for everyone in these earmarks requests: those for the elderly, kids and education are mostly ok. But how do you justify $500,000 for the Cal Ripken Foundation for programs for disadvantaged youth? I don’t question that programs like this aren’t worthy, but should federal money be used to fund Cal Ripken’s foundation programs? No. Cal should ask his wealthy friends to support his programs, not the taxpayer.

But private companies and federal agencies? Not ok.

Many of the projects listed in Maryland’s congressional wish list have to do with military and national security projects. There is no doubt this is an important industry in our state. But you have to ask if they are so important, why they weren’t funded from the defense budget or other agencies with responsibility for these areas? The Sun article cited an appropriation request for a $60 million Cray computer for the National Security Agency. I don’t question that the NSA needs a Cray computer. But the NSA’s request was probably knocked out of the budget process because the Obama administration had higher spending priorities. So the NSA went to their congressman for an earmark to get around that.

At least the congressman making that request, Dutch Ruppersberger, sits on the House Select Committee on Intelligence so just maybe he knows something that Intelligence Chief Leon Panetta doesn’t. But what of John Sarbanes' $6.5 million earmark to a Columbia defense contractor for a “Seacatcher UAS Launch and Recovery System”. Maybe this is a good program and maybe it isn’t, but I am not sure that Sarbanes is in a position to know because he doesn’t sit on any committees that deal with military matters. Defense Secretary Gates just announced cuts to wasteful military programs. If the Seacatcher were a priority for the Defense Department I expect it would have been included in the department’s appropriation request.

I am all for federal spending in Maryland. Better the money come to Maryland than go to Montana. And, I am not picking on any of these congressmen in particular. Unfortunately, this is the way the game is played. As long as they can do it, they will.

But accepting business as usual got us where we are today. President Obama opposes earmarks as part of the Washington insider culture that needs to be changed (full disclosure: I did too when I ran for congress). Why? Plain and simple: there is too much temptation for favoritism, and there is too little oversight and accountability. Earmarks circumvent the appropriations process, and that’s the point.

As Congress plays with its earmarks, they should consider that maybe there isn’t a whole lot of difference between earmarks and the indiscriminate loans made by the financiers that got us into the current financial mess. The regulatory system failed the public and we are all paying for the consequences. The earmark addiction represents an abdication of the legislative process in favor of, well, favoritism.

In his inaugural address, the President said it was time for government to put aside childish things. The Gates defense budget shows that his administration is willing to make tough choices.

But it’s obvious that Congress can’t, and won’t give up its earmark toys. It’s going to be up to President Obama to take them away.  12:13 PM •