Earmarks

Congressional earmarks are government funded projects that are of no relevance and do nothing but bring money to the companies or organizations often in their districts. This upsets many Americans because earmarks are a big waste of tax payer money, and that money could be going towards better things like health care. Bucknell University’s “Marcellus Shale Research Initiative,” which was supported by Sen. Bob Casey and Sen. Arlen Specter for $1.25 million each and Rep. Christopher Carney for $1 million. This is an earmark that upsets me because we don't need to research shale. We know enough about shale currently and we shouldn't be wasting 3.5 million dollars of tax money on a project like this. The senators probably say that shale has valuable resources in it. There might be resources but so what, the cost of getting those resources would be way to high, so stop researching it. They might also say it boosts our economy, Obama has tried stimulus already and that did absolutely nothing for us. Those are some reasons I am upset by this earmark, and some reasons why the senators say we need this earmark.