No to earmarks

Readers respond to Question of the Week: Is it an earmark or is it a pork barrel?

If a piece of legislation is right for the country or state, then legislators should be willing to vote for it without earmarks or pork barrel spending. The problem is that too many laws are not for the general good but rather to pay back special interests and activists. I don’t believe you can have a happy, cohesive population instituting laws with a 51% majority achieved by buying votes. It leaves half the country’s population alienated. This is not the way to keep the states united. The ability to earmark or engage in pork barrel spending shows there is too much money in the system. Money and power corrupt. The only way for the people to take back control of their federal/state government is to eliminate the money and have term limits for all elected officials. More governance should be pushed to the local level, where citizens can better monitor their elected officials.

— Debbie Owen, Rancho Cucamonga

Earmarks and pork barrel spending are just labels

Whether legislation is labeled “earmark” or “pork barrel” the connotation is generally negatively considered by conservatives as wasting taxpayer’s dollars. So, this labeling may not seem productive, if interfering with evaluating the value of specific proposals by representatives. As mentioned, Sen. Alex Padilla, who secured $250 million dollars on 134 various projects, may be given either of these similar labels, regardless of their merits. Yet, before these projects were passed, they required strong bipartisan support. Being an election year, using such labels can prove persuasive when voting for specific candidates.

— Isadora Johnson, Seal Beach

Let's buy your vote

It is neither an earmark or a pork barrel. It is a dishonest way to spend your money in order to buy your vote. Every dollar spent by Congress on a specific item should be voted on by the entire Congress. Now, Congress votes on a specific total amount to be spent on earmarks and it is up to each congressperson to outsmart the others to get their share to use it to lure their voters to vote for them. It is a game and we are the losers again.

— Leonard Musgrave,

Orange

MALLARD FILLMORE: By Bruce Tinsley