Congressional pet projects boom -- in secret

The Boston Globe reports:

Members of Congress inserted a record number of pet projects in last year's budget, feeding the burgeoning Washington lobbying industry that lawmakers in both parties insist they want to reform.


The local projects, which range from bike trails to specialized museums and educational activities by wild-turkey enthusiasts, are inserted in the budget in secrecy, during committee negotiations, and have no recorded sponsors -- a system geared toward allowing members to avoid accountability.

Congress, which spent $10 billion on 1,439 such projects in 1995, ran up $27.3 billion for a record 13,997 such projects -- known as earmarks -- last year, according to the nonpartisan Citizens Against Government Waste.

A Globe review of Senate records shows that the secretive earmark process has also become a boon for lobbyists, who sell clients on their ability to persuade members to insert pet projects into the budget.

It's hard to be open and honest when you take money from A to give to B.Electing representatives to confiscate wealth doesn't make it anymore just.