Apparently, though, earmarks are okay. According to new disclosure forms the House has just started using, Paul is the sponsor of no fewer than 10 earmarks in the water resources bill that passed the House last month. All would benefit his district, which stretches along the Gulf Coast between Galveston and Corpus Christi.
His wish list includes two projects to improve the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, at a combined federal cost of roughly $32 million. There’s also the sunken ship Paul wants the feds to remove from Freeport Harbor. And he wants the feds to take charge of maintaining the Pix Bayou Navigation Channel. There’s also a feasibility study for flood, hurricane and storm damage control projects along the coast. And there’s the mysterious “project in the vicinity of Galveston Bay.” (The bill provided no other details.)
It turns out, though, that for all his scourging of government excess, Paul never has been much of a crusader against earmarks. As he put it in a floor speech last year, “earmarks . . . are a symptom of the problem, not the cause. The real problem is that the United States government is too big, spends too much, and has too much power.”
Still, why play along by earmarking federal spending? Because a crackdown on earmarks, he says, would only grant the executive branch more control over where the money goes. The total amount of spending wouldn’t change. “There’s nothing wrong with designating where the money goes,” Paul says — so long as the earmark is “up front and everyone knows about it,” rather than having it slipped in at the last minute with no scrutiny.
In an ideal world, Paul says, there wouldn’t be a federal income tax. But since there is, he says, he feels a responsibility to help his constituents recover some of the tax dollars the government has taken from them. “I don’t want them to take it,” he says, “but if they do take it, I’d just as soon help my constituents get it back.”
Don’t assume, however, that the earmarks were attractive enough to persuade Paul to vote for the water bill. When it came to the House floor, “Dr. No” didn’t vote.
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So Ron Paul, who votes "no" on everything, has an affinity for earmarks. In fact, he sponsored 10 earmarks for one bill and then promptly sat out the vote. That is actually smooth in a slimy sort of way. This is a prime example of how Ron Paul conducts himself in Congress. He puts the earmarks in so he can say he "brings home the bacon" and then sits out the vote, especially if he feels the bill with his earmarks will pass anyway, so he can pacify the anti-tax zombies. This is how Ron Paul represents the 14th District.