A Great Primer on Earmarks

Citizens Against Government Waste has a basic primer on earmarks:

The Founding Fathers deemed that Congress could only spend money in pursuant to those powers specifically enumerated in the Constitution. The 10th Amendment leaves all other responsibilities to the states.

For much of the nation’s history, constitutional objections from members of Congress, the president, and state legislatures were effective in limiting parochial spending.

The First Congress rejected a bill to loan money to a glass manufacturer after several members challenged the constitutionality of the proposal. In a debate during the Second Congress over a bill to pay a bounty to New England cod fisherman, Rep. Hugh Williamson of South Carolina argued that it was unconstitutional “to gratify one part of the Union by oppressing the other . . . destroy this barrier; - and it is not a few fishermen that will enter, but all manner of persons; people of every trade and occupation may enter in at the breach, until they have eaten up the bread of our children.”

Via Club For Growth.You'll want to read this entire article.