“In the grand scheme of things — among all the wasteful, foolish, corrupting things engaged in by members of Congress — earmarks are one small item. We read about the latest insider deals in the morning paper, but earmarks certainly don’t capture the intense media attention that congressional groping and tickling do. Nor do earmarks account for much of the gross spending, relatively. In the last fiscal year budget, out of roughly a trillion dollars in discretionary federal spending, only $16 billion was blown via thousands of earmarks. So, why all the fuss? It’s not merely that a little corruption, unchecked, tends to lead to bigger corruption. It is also that a little corruption is still, well … corruption. And corruption of any size, shape or partisan color is wrong. Allowing individual congressmen to personally bestow chunks of federal money to various for-profit businesses or non-profit groups can only corrupt.” (03/14/10)