Capital Gains and Games

Gordon Adams, a long-time friend from the federal budgeting world, is one of this country's true experts on military spending and budgeting so when he talks, I listen.

One of Gordon's latest articles is a must-read given some of the ridiculousness passing for serious debate these days about Pentagon spending.  It's short and well worth your time.

But what's of most interest to me about Gordon's article is that he points out something that has barely made it into the public consciousness about federal spending, let alone the debate inside the Beltway.  While President Bush, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Sen. Jim Demint (R-SC), and a number of other elected officials want us to focus on earmarks, the real problem according to Adams is something else that starts with an "E"--emergency spending or rather nonemergency spending labeled as an emergency.

As yourself this: If earmarks totalled less than $20 billion last year while emergency spending will approach $200 billion, why are we focusing more attention on the first than the second?