If Thomas Jefferson were still alive, he would take our current constitutionally illiterate elected officials to the woodshed for spending Federal Tax dollars on programs that are 99.9999% State and not federal responsibility.
If you look a most of these pork laden bills you will find most earmarks do not pass the smell test of something the federal government should be involved with.
If the politicians do not know their constitutional limits then how can we attack these non-federal responsibility items? If we go to the USSC it seems, based upon some recent rulings, American citizens have no standing.
Well if we have no standing who the hell does? Maybe time is well past for a complete overhaul and purging of EVERY branch of government so as to create a government where the citizens DO have standing.
State or local. You are 100% right and you are the first I have seen or heard bring that up. It is far more important than earmarks by themselves and would basically eliminate earmarks were that point hammered home.
Keep up the good work and educate us all.