Just going to have to disagree... I think earmarks are exactly the thing that caused congresspeople to lose all of their power. > you've just put the big donor

Just going to have to disagree... I think earmarks are exactly the thing that caused congresspeople to lose all of their power. > you've just put the big donors totally in charge of the campaign, because their spending dwarfs the spending of the candidates themselves. When the donors are the corporations, and earmarks result in higher profits for the corporations, a dangerous positive feedback loop occurs where you basically end up with corporations controlling the government instead of the elected politicians. As far as the worst political decision of the past few decades, watch this video if you have an hour to spare. It lays out the case where adding transparency in congressional voting is really the root cause of Congress being so screwed up. It might change your mind... https://youtu.be/1gEz__sMVaY https://youtu.be/1gEz__sMVaY