Charities Should Stop Seeking Earmarks

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

To the Editor:

The ever-growing practice of “earmarks” of federal funds to specific nonprofit organizations by members of Congress is nothing less than an insidious form of corruption (“Manna or Pork?: a Special Report,” July 21).

I find it especially despicable that supposedly high-minded organizations, such as the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (“Lobbying for Charity”) proudly defend these scams just as long as they have their place at the feeding trough. Of course, colleges and universities have been playing this noxious game for a long time.

Robbie Callaway of the Boys & Girls Clubs has the gall to assert that individual members of Congress are just as qualified as federal civil servants, who work under published rules in open competitive grant processes, to judge the merit of a specific program. Mr. Callaway knows that members of Congress will not take a single second to consider the merits of any individual program outside of their state or district. His argument is an insult to the intelligence of your readers. I served as chief of staff to a member of Congress.

I have high regard for many of our elected officials, regardless of party. But when these pork-barrel practices now hand out in excess of $27-billion per year (a larger amount of money than the entirety of many state budgets), it is time to stop both the giveaway of public funds and the irresponsible expenditures on lobbyists to help influence this sanitized form of influence peddling masquerading as good works.

It is time for the boards of these nonprofits to stop asking for these funds. It is time for me to create an earmarked grant of my own to Citizens Against Government Waste, a group that is trying to stop the corruption. As a lifelong liberal Democrat, I otherwise would not donate to this group, but enough is enough.

Stephen S. Weiner
Piedmont, Calif.