Mwalimu-G
Elder Lister
Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu
'It’s not fair'
Murtha mostly serves Cambria County, western Pennsylvania, and the city of Johnstown, known for a murderous 1889 flood and as the setting for “Slap Shot,” the classic 1977 movie about a team of ice hockey brawlers starring Paul Newman. It’s a proud, gritty place. But does its population of 20,000 -- just 80 miles from Pittsburgh International -- need a state-of-the-art airport?
The airport memorializes the man who built it, a late and powerful congressman who steered tens of millions of dollars to his home district through “earmarks” — a device for lawmakers to add funding for pet projects to spending bills. John Murtha was far from alone in directing taxpayer cash to revive regions hammered after heavy industry left the Midwest for Asia. It’s tough to drive far in West Virginia, for example, without encountering a road or building named for longtime Senate bull Robert Byrd or his wife, Erma.
Earmarks were once simply the cost of doing business in Washington. There are legendary tales of Senate Majority Leader and President Lyndon Johnson calling up a lawmaker to demand the price of his vote. But when bills got laden down with “pork barrel spending,” earmarks got a bad name, and it was good politics for the conservative House majority to outlaw them from 2011.
They may soon be due for a comeback. Without backhanders, party leaders struggled to get members to cast tough votes, further cementing an era of gridlock. Now House and Senate Democrats are considering a return of earmarks so members get some credit for sending money home.
Conservative budget hawks will kick up a fuss. But even in the Republican Party, what anonymous member doesn’t nurture fantasies of their name up in lights on a bridge, highway or even an airport