US Congressman Claims Earmark Ban Prevents Congress from Defending America from Nuclear Holocaust

According to Texas Congressman John Culberson, Congress’ current “earmark” ban—which is about as porous as they come— gravely endangers the national security of the United States, since it prevents Congress from “fully protecting the U.S. against the North Korean ICBM threat.”

Earmarks, also known as “pork-barrel spending”, are when a Congressman allocates additional funding onto an unrelated bill for a specific project in his district. For example, earmarks often help pay for infrastructure, or other pet projects.

Basically, earmarks are how Congressmen bribe their constituents and buy votes—of course, some earmarks do go towards worthy causes, but the majority are utter wastes of federal taxpayer money.

For example, one earmark requested $400,000 to help fund a Teapot museum in Sparta, North Carolina. Bizarre, or in the very least self-serving, spending habits are the norm when it comes to earmarks.

Back to Congressman Culberson. This claim is not a joke.

From the Congressman’s website:

Five years ago, we put in place an earmark ban with the best of intentions. Today, it is clear that the earmark ban has resulted in less transparency and an abdication of our constitutional duty.

Among many other problems, the current earmark ban prevents Congress from:

1. deepening U.S. ports to handle the larger ships that can now run through the widened Panama Canal

2. fully protecting the U.S. against the North Korean ICBM threat.

I support reintroducing targeted spending in order to allow Members to authorize projects in a geographically specific location for federal, state, or local governments that:

· Have a clear federal nexus;

· Are authorized by law; and

· Do not increase spending beyond the 302(a) allocation.

Introducing targeted spending will restore Congress’s constitutional duty and allow us to more effectively use the power of the purse to rein in the Administration and unelected bureaucrats.

Attached below is an image, in case the original link is edited or removed:

One does wonder how earmarks could save America from an ICBM strike—perhaps the Congressman believes that every senator will earmark millions of dollars to build local fallout shelters and stockpile bottled water and Twinkies?

Your editor is at a loss.

And what is more bizarre is the fact that Congressman Culberson describes himself as a fiscal conservative. According to his biography:

As a fiscally conservative “Jeffersonian Republican,” Congressman John Culberson is committed to Thomas Jefferson’s vision of limited government, individual liberty, and states’ rights. Simply put, John Culberson believes in “Letting Texans Run Texas.”

We find this claim hard to believe. More likely, the Congressman is simply naive. Perhaps he does intend to do good work with his earmarks, but the problem is that most other Congressmen are not so noble—money will be wasted, and the good will not balance out the bad.