Earmarks

Earmarks are painted as evil and somehow special interests immoral. But are they? They fund jobs and projects in the states and districts that receive them. If your district or states does not receive Federal Earmarks, than the money simply goes to another state or district.

In a state where higher education is facing cuts of 33%, state infastructure faces another ten percent cuts (bring overall cuts to over 40%), 7 out of 10 homes are below water on their mortgages, blocks of homes sit vacant, uneployment is over 14% and a large minority population finds itself unable to move and without much economic hope, a few earmarket should be a good thing.

 Yet Republicans challenging Senator Harry Reid in what will be a very uphill relection bid (thanks to his fighting for national and local needs from shutting down Yucca Mountain to making sure Americans have health care) say that they would not accept earmarks and are solidly against the big government that could save ours and other states, or at least help the private sector to rebuild out financial infastructures before they bankrupt and fall into dispair.

 Taxpayers for Common Sense released a report this week that shows that Sen. Harry Reid brings home more federal earmark dollars than the rest of the Nevada delegation combined, coming in sixth in the senate in solo earmarks and eighth in joint earmarks. Nevada got more in earmark dollars last year than most other states, coming in 10th in per capita dollars thanks to Reid.

Earmarks are a crucial way Nevada competes with other states for federal dollars for crucial projects such as infrastructure improvements, military construction and flood control projects. Without earmarks, Nevada would receive much less federal funding per capita than other states because state government doesn't fund many programs as robustly as other states do.

So while Sen. Reid brought home more than a quarter billion dollars in funding for important projects and services in the state of Nevada, U.S. Senate candidates Sue Lowden and Danny Tarkanian have sworn off earmarks, leaving Nevada out in the cold while other states take home much-needed funding.