President Trump voiced support Tuesday for a much-maligned Congressional spending action: earmarks. For all the criticism earmarks have received, it may be an idea whose time has returned. The estimates of earmarks suggested they were only one percent of federal outlays, or perhaps $20 to $40 billion. These were distributed in a bipartisan way, decided by appropriations committees and subcommittees functioning in a bipartisan way. Also, the more that appropriators tried to reduce criticism by making some of the earmarks nontransparent, the more that the press savaged the system.

Source: Forbes January 12, 2018 16:30 UTC