Earmarks are business as usual

To the editor:

Earmarks are the way Congress works. Legislators propose a bill that is necessary and well-publicized. Legislators add their individual requests for money that goes back to their districts.

Earmarks usually have nothing to do with the big bill. They are not debated. Often they are for nonessential, overpriced or duplicated projects. They are a perfect way for legislators to send pork back to their voters. They allow the legislators to brag about representing their district's needs when they run for re-election. And they allow the citizens of the district to happily re-elect their representative with no term limits.

All these earmarks are the reason why our national debt is in the trillions and growing exponentially every year. This fiasco continues because a majority of voters always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury.

Can this form of government survive? Is there anyone in Congress trying to change this way of voting for the nation's good?

I feel all Congress is doing is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, or dealing with small problems rather than face the big problem (outlandish spending) that may mean the end of our form of government.

BETTY LANDRE, Cape Girardeau