Eliminating Earmarks
A simple first step in cutting taxes
Earmarks, pet projects, and pork are different terms which mean the same thing: tax dollars requested by elected official used to pay for politically motivated projects.
South Carolina’s earmark process is particularly egregious- there is very little transparency in the process to ensure your tax dollars are used in an efficient way reflective of the request for which they were distributed, and there is virtually zero accountability.
Each year, the General Assembly approves budgets chalk full of pork spending totaling hundreds of millions of dollars for horse races, wine festivals, podcasts, and Lego societies.
As House leadership continues to struggle with a solution to their tax hike bill which they dishonestly touted as a tax cut last week, we have a simple solution to their problems: to cut spending drastically and make good on their promise to reduce taxes, start by eliminating earmarks in the budget.
By cutting $500 million in earmarks, we can reduce taxes by a half percent. In recent years, earmark totals have far exceeded $500 million. While this is still far away from our ultimate goal of eliminating the income tax which would require legislative resolve to disassemble and discard whole unnecessary agencies, this is an easy first step setting us on the right path to deliver the largest true tax cut in recent history. In addition to cutting all earmarks (which may total closer to $1 billion this year, representing a cut closer to a full percent), we would suggest aggressive budget cuts for nonessential government programs, agencies, and departments. Thankfully, the South Carolina Freedom Caucus proposed an alternative budget earlier this year which would, if followed, accomplish these early goals.
House leadership now faces a choice: follow the Senate’s lead and do right by the people, or double down on the swamp politics that South Carolinians are fed up with. The Freedom Caucus has made its position clear. We will not stand by while taxpayer dollars are hijacked to serve political interests. The time to end earmarks is now.
In the meantime check out www.SCPorkProject.com
For liberty,
SCFC
"Community investment" is their current catchphrase for all this excess spending.
I wouldn't mind the pork so much if the money spent was of benefit to the average taxpayer. Much, if not most, of the projects are of very limited purpose with no taxpayer utility. Many things are memorials to legislators, present and past, to remind the lowly taxpayer how hard that particular legislator worked (works) on behalf of his constituents. I agree that eliminating the earmarks would be a good step towards bringing the budget under control, hopefully with the possibility of lowering taxes. Thank you again to the SC Freedom Caucus for actually attempting to ensure that government works for the good of the taxpayers.