Earmark crappola

A Call for Service

The idea of using national service programs to help rural America is gaining ground. In October, U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, both New York Democrats, introduced the Rebuild Rural America Act, a broad measure that includes the creation of a Rural Future Corps to help rural communities improve child care, health services and job training, among other things. A bill summary says “specific efforts would be included to retain the Corps members in the rural areas after their service.”

Big state senators have missed the clue.  We cannot do these special programs, we are going the just send the Senate a wad of cash for each state.  The idea of a special service for rurals vs urbans just exacerbates the scale problem for Vermont and Wyoming.  Their only salvation is to wrap all the special earmarks into a bundle and given them cash, up front. Wyoming has to hire program managers to work at a scale much less efficient than a California. Thus there may be a better allocation of that money peculiar to Wyoming that brings great gains.