Is it an earmark or is it a pork barrel?

When your member of Congress, or your United States senator, brings home the bacon, as it were, in terms of spending projects in your district, is that sponsored legislation a mere “earmark,” or is that bacon really pork-barrel excess?

That’s our Question of the Week for our readers.

For House members and for the Senate, earmarks were banned in 2011. That followed some scandalous, though hardly surprising — we’re talking about politicians — pay-to-play behavior on the part of many of our electeds.

But earmarks quietly were allowed to return last year, as many Americans were understandably distracted by the pandemic.

As the Sacramento Bee explains: “Lawmakers saw them as not only tapping into their local expertise, but just as important, they were a way of building the sort of bipartisan coalitions needed to pass big money bills. The practice was rebranded as ‘community project funding,’ subject to new rules aimed at preventing wasteful spending and conflicts of interest.”

Those who oppose them will certainly continue to brand the budgetary maneuvering as pork.

Should we credit pols who can finagle big bucks for projects in their districts as being masters of the game? Or are they simply encouraging wasteful spending? Do you know of a project in your community that was the product of an earmark? Is it a boon to residents, or a boondoggle?

California Sen. Alex Padilla, the Bee notes, “boasts he’s secured about $250 million for 134 projects, ranging from bike and pedestrian path improvements to flood control” in our state as the appointed senator runs for election to a full term in November.

He’s clearly proud to be able to be an earmarker for state projects.

But the newspaper also quotes Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove, one of four California House members who did not seek earmarks, as saying the system “bypasses the normal process in which projects have to compete on their merits.” Does the return of the earmark herald even more excessive federal spending?

Email your thoughts to opinion@scng.com. Please include your full name and city or community of residence. Provide a daytime phone number (it will not be published).