Budget Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Budget - Essay Example A soft earmark denotes a courteous request, which does not specify the amount of money, but steers funds to identified organizations. Lawmakers are in a capacity to request for funds to be allocated to a certain organization or project without the legal binding presented by hard earmarks (Mikesell, 2014). In my opinion, soft earmarks are more effective for lawmakers. Notably, with soft earmarks, lawmakers do not need to specify the amount of money and do not need to identify the sponsor. Therefore, through the use of respectful suggestion, a lawmaker can transfer funds to a favored organization without having to be accountable for the spending. Hard earmarks are highly criticized and compel lawmakers to account for the spending (p. 145). Soft earmarks do not add to the total spending because they do not involve the allocation of additional funds to any department. On the contrary, soft earmarks make requests of how a specific portion of the existing budget can be spent. The fact that they only represent a small percentage of the government’s outlets on an annual basis serves to emphasize that they do not count in the total spending (p. 146). In my opinion, the control of earmarks is an important public issue because it concerns federal funds. Notably, earmarked funds determine projects in a state that will receive funding. Since lawmakers have only been earmarking funds for their preferred organizations, some deserving projects have been left out. Therefore, it is of critical importance for earmarks to be placed under the control before lawmakers use them to promote personal interests. Earmarks have been used by lawmakers in an effort to deliver â€Å"goodies† to districts or states. Usually, a district deserves pork if it offered support to a lawmaker. Therefore, lawmakers rely on soft earmarks in delivering pork to their states. The fact that they do not need to disclose the purpose of spending in soft