Earmarks. What???

[Ross]

Lately they have been talking about insider trading by elected officials.
Tha has also brought to mind, once again, ear marks.
Washington Post has a very good article about earmarks that shows they are being used to enrich those same elected officials.

Tax payer Dollars at work ------- for who?

Sounds familiar to me.

The long article can be read at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2012/01/12/gIQA97HGvQ_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboNP

An additional story Public Projects, Private Interests by the Washington Post can also be read at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/capitol-assets/public-projects-private-interests/

What is an earmark?

Defining an earmark
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/what-is-an-earmark/2012/01/27/gIQAK6HGvQ_story.html

[Warph]

Earmarks come in two varieties: Hard earmarks, or "Hardmarks," found in legislation and Soft earmarks, or "Softmarks" found in the text of congressional committee reports.  Hard earmarks are binding and have the effect of law; soft earmarks do not have the effect of law but by custom are acted upon as if they were binding. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/m012606.pdf

Typically, a legislator seeks to insert earmarks that direct a specified amount of money to a particular organization or project in their home state or district.  Earmarks may be considered synonymous with "pork barrel" legislation, although the two are not necessarily the same.