Commentary I wrote the "Reelection Enterprise" a few years back in my more casual news-blog called Grays Harbor Weekly. It is an article worth mentioning and expanding on given the recent $1.2 trillion dollar monster spending bill that came out of the other Washington, (DC). The legacy media, instead of looking at the bill with a critical eye, covered for politicians and said it was to avert a government shutdown, which is but a shell of the truth.
To feel better about spending this gross amount of money while the United States sits atop a cliff of financial debt, feel at ease. The appropriations are no longer called pork barrel spending or earmarks. The rebrand of these terms no longer comes with a negative connotation. The Senate calls it "Congressional Directed Spending," and the House calls it "Community Project Funding." Feel better?
In the State of Washington, Patty Murray (D) requested $236.6 million for 95 projects in the 2024 budget. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R) aimed for over $62 million. Newcomer Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D) didn’t waste any time taking part in the spending spree as she requested $44.8 million, while the departing Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R) aimed for over $52 million. Leading the pack was Sen. Maria Cantwell (D), who, facing an election this year, asked for a whopping $419.9 million for 148 projects in the 2024 budget.
The most newsworthy earmark came by Sen. Patty Murray, for her request of $706,000 to Entre Hermanos, a Seattle based Latino LGBTQ+ organization that hosts drag brunch and offers attorney services to illegal immigrants.
As many know, the campaign finance laws are confusing and tricky (not like stock trading) for politicians. How else can a person pay for their re-election campaign in this maze of laws and tripwires? Answer: buy favors with NGOs, businesses, and small governments through taxpayer-funded projects and programs.
Does it work though? The House of Representatives had an incumbent reelection rate of 94.5%, and the Senate a 100% election rate in 2022, yet their approval rating hovers around 13%. If this doesn’t raise concerns about the state of our republic, what else could possibly alert us to the broken system we find ourselves in?
Do we want our public funds to be used as a vehicle to garner favor or support from special interest groups, bureaucrats, lobbyists, and nonprofits? Sure, this is effective at maintaining political power but is it good for you, us?
Perhaps I am too hard on those who work so hard spending our money? They don't make much for all the darts and arrows that get launched their direction.
However, they do receive some outstanding benefits for their hard work. Insider trading, while frowned upon by main-street, it is lauded by members of the political class, matter of fact it is a feature of obtaining a Congressional seat. Members of Congress outperform the S&P 500, sometimes even by huge amounts. The S&P 500 is a stock market index that measures the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. Either Congress is full of trading experts, or they are acting on information they receive in their professional duties behind closed doors.
The re-election enterprise is happening locally, and I will report on it. To name a few, the Wishkah Wall project, the Gateway Enterprise Center, and Blue Zones. These projects benefit the politicians supporting them more than the public paying for them. They often lack a clear vision or measurable outcomes, skirting any market forces of supply, demand, or competition.
Furthermore, earmarks, I mean, Congressional Directed Spending, was revived after more than a decade (2011), and it shows how politicians leverage federal spending to cement their positions, with both Democrats and Republicans participating.
It wasn’t always this way. The Senate was an instrument of the states, a protection against federal encroachment on states' rights. James Madison said during the constitutional convention of 1787 that giving state legislatures the power to choose Senators provided a "double advantage," by "favoring a select appointment, and of giving to the State governments such an agency in the formation of the federal government as must secure the authority of the former."
The "re-election enterprise" is real, and it poses a significant problem for Americans. As citizens, lets not expand some politicians spending resume or elect the farm team of future spenders. We elect the stewards of our public resources; the onus is on us to demand that public funds are collected to fund the most basic and fundamental responsibilities of government. Go out and vote like your future depends on it, because it does.
"The future belongs to those who show up." ~Glen Morgan
----------- Opinion and Commentary written by Wes Cormier, the editor of The Harbor Tribune, who has a background in local government, having served two terms as a Grays Harbor County Commissioner.