According to an analysis by Taxpayers for Common Sense, the 2004 Consolidated Omnibus Spending Bill contains 7,931 political earmarks at the total cost of $10.7 billion.

7,931 checks, EACH averaging $1.35 million... just tossed out by individual representatives. The Heritage Foundation says they found over 10,000 earmarks.

Is it difficult to become a recipient of an earmark? Not if you know how to play the game, and there are lessons in how to play. Read how Michael Fulton, Executive Vice President of Golin/Harris, an international public relations firm instructs, in a guide for college and university administrators:

The Elements of Earmarking: An art or a science?

If you write a competitive grant proposal in response to a published request for proposals, the numbers of pages can go into the hundreds with minute detail. In the federal appropriations process, a brief two-page document containing the concept; rationale; national, state and local need; and budget synopsis is all that is required. Congressional staff often wants to boil your presentation into a one-pager to submit to a Subcommittee chairman.

If your project is funded, it is important to assist the Congressional office(s) announce it properly and to hold a ceremony on campus related to the success. Any university media or speeches about the federal funding should give credit to those who made it possible. Not doing so can hinder future efforts with those Members of Congress who feel neglected or used in the process.

There is no more clear case of "who you know" and "who you buy" being the key to success in getting federal money through earmarks. Information about the project itself is unimportant, but getting the right people involved, including expensive lobbyists, is critical. Check these examples, as reported in the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Middletown Regional Health System last year hired well-connected Cassidy & Associates. They spent $100,000 this year lobbying for a $750,000 appropriation for a new outpatient oncology treatment center, according to lobbying filings.

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center spent $740,000 on Washington lobbyists and received more than $20 million. Board member John Pepper called it "good value for our money."

A 750% return on your investment? For the Underground Railroad, a 2700% return! Of course, they're NOT investments in the traditional sense, but to those spending and receiving the money, they may seem like it. The waste is mind-blowing! Guess why those organizations have the funds to hire the lobbyists to get more funds? You KNOW why they can afford it. Once they get started on earmarked funds, it gets easier to afford to get it again, and again, and again. Guess who most of the expensive lobbyists are? Ex-congressmen, who know their way around Washington as insiders and have the best contacts. After they retire, on great pensions, they can then get lucrative positions as lobbyists.

Earmarked funds have to be among the most corrupt and cynical waste of taxpayer dollars possible. Based on flimsy justification, determined by political favoritism, and flung around with no oversight. Everything about earmarks is wrong, and nobody even knows just how wrong it might be. Even serious research by watchdog groups can't uncover all the earmarks in a spending bill, nor can they discover how they got there.

While the Bush administration is taking fully justified heat for their actions, EARMARKS come from individual congressional legislators. Hate the Bush administration? Don't let that hatred sway you into giving Congress the benefit of the doubt. They're every bit as guilty, and for earmarks, they should receive a fair share of your hatred.