Tom Coburn in Saving Freedom

On Government Reform: Earmarks are gateway drug for wasteful government spending

Solving serious problems requires our discovery of what caused them. The bottom line, root cause of much of America's current overspending, debt, and governmental dysfunction is the practice of earmarking. There is nothing in Washington that symbolizes special interests and the deterioration of constitutional government more than earmarking. My friend Senator Tom Coburn from Oklahoma has described earmarks as the "gateway drug for wasteful government spending." He's right. And that means earmarks are one of the primary reasons for the growth and dysfunction of government, and America's slide toward socialism.

I began my political career believing earmarking was a harmless and important way to represent my district. After a few years in Congress, my mind began to change as I saw the damage the practice of earmarking was doing to our government and country. It became clear that asking for earmarks for my state stood in direct contradiction to my solemn oath to defend the Constitution.

Source: Saving Freedom, by Jim DeMint, p.113-114 Jul 4, 2009

The above quotations are from Saving Freedom: We Can Stop America's Slide into Socialism, by Sen. Jim DeMint. Click here for other excerpts from Saving Freedom: We Can Stop America's Slide into Socialism, by Sen. Jim DeMint. Click here for other excerpts by Tom Coburn. Click here for a profile of Tom Coburn.
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