Should we call it Political Dementia? Our feckless Republican elected officials have fought to keep $16 billion in earmarks in the bill for the next fiscal year. These elected Representatives and Senators either forgot about MAGA and DOGE OR resented having to play along to get elected or reelected. I am going to go with “resented”. Smarmy jerks.

This will clock me as old, but we, in the Conservative movement, have been fighting against earmarks since President Ronald Reagan. We made no headway with Bush father or son BUT we knew that with the tag team of Donald Trump and Elon Musk/DOGE we would in the 2024 Election. The undercard of House and Senate flapped their gums and we believed them. Liars.

Elon was driven back to his businesses, Trump had no back up and our shiftless Representatives and Senators showed their true nature. From Politico:

Fiscal conservatives in Congress threatened for months to block government funding if GOP leaders didn’t shun earmarks. They succeeded in scrapping just one; the rest, almost $16 billion worth, are slated in the package the Senate needs to clear by Friday to avoid a shutdown.

Republican hard-liners on both sides of the Capitol have made things difficult this winter for their leadership, which has been scrambling to fund the government before cash runs out Friday for the vast majority of federal agencies. But they failed to significantly curtail the practice of directing federal dollars to specific projects back home.

Republicans swore off earmarks for more than a decade in 2010 amid corruption scandals and demands from conservatives empowered by the rise of the Tea Party movement that has since receded. Then in 2021, Democrats brought back the practice after the party swept control of the White House and Congress, softening the return with a rebrand as “community project funding,” new rules to prevent abuse and a cap at 1 percent of funding.

What are “earmarks” and why do Conservatives dislike them so much? From the Peter G. Petersen Foundation:

The term “earmark” refers to federal spending for a specific project for a particular congressional district, locality, or state. Earmarks have been controversial, but nevertheless were reinstated by Congress in 2021 after a 10-year moratorium. Some argue that earmarks help create a smoother and more transparent appropriation process, enabling local jurisdictions to more directly request and access funds that are well-targeted to their needs. On the other hand, some believe that earmarks too often reflect wasteful spending on “pet projects” that are used as tokens in the larger budget process.

WE have known for quite some time that we pay enough in taxes and the government spends too much. We all know about waste, fraud and abuse. The Government Hog overspending is killing us.

Earmarks are back again. More from Politico:

Now Republicans run Washington once again, and they’re overwhelmingly embracing the renaissance. As the Senate considers a nearly $1.3 trillion funding package this week loaded with thousands of earmarks for projects in specific congressional districts, fiscal hawks are acknowledging defeat.

“When a majority of the United States House and a large chunk of the Senate seemingly want to advance earmarks, there’s only so much you can do,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said in an interview.

“I’ve long stated I think it’s the currency of corruption, and we shouldn’t do it,” he added. “But, you know, members like to do it.”

Capitol Hill’s most vocal earmark proponents argue that, if not for the revival of earmarks, congressional leaders would not have succeeded in clinching bipartisan deals to fund the Pentagon and nondefense agencies with new budgets for the first time in almost two years.

So, these elected types are saying that they are incompetent, lazy and don’t want to do their jobs. Here is a quick and dirty explanation of earmarks from Congressman Tom McClintock to Jesse Kelly.

But there are those who will defend it. Finally from Politico:

Capitol Hill’s most vocal earmark proponents argue that, if not for the revival of earmarks, congressional leaders would not have succeeded in clinching bipartisan deals to fund the Pentagon and nondefense agencies with new budgets for the first time in almost two years.

The multibill funding package has yet to reach President Donald Trump’s desk and is now complicated by Democratic outrage over ICE funding after a federal immigration enforcement agent fatally shot another U.S. citizen in Minnesota over the weekend. But lawmakers in both parties are already touting the cash they secured for local projects as they campaign for reelection nine months out from the midterms.

“It’s not worth being in Congress if you can’t find ways to help your district,” Rep. Mike Flood said in an interview.

The only way to help your district is with “other people’s money” (OPM)? The only way to help your district is by the greasing of palms? DOGE and MAGA disagree and so would the Founding Fathers.

My Congressman Tim Burchett does not like earmarks.

Why are we so gutless? pic.twitter.com/kgnTfv91jZ

— Tim Burchett (@timburchett) January 25, 2026

Gutless and feckless. By the way, Burchett has the flu and has been out in the cold rounding up his donkeys. I completely agree with him. We have to save our country.

Do better. No earmarks.

Featured Image: Department of Justice/Wikimedia Commons.org/cropped/Public Domain