CAN TRUMP BE PRO DOGE AND EARMARKS BOTH? Little remembered fact about President Donald Trump’s first term: It was then that both political parties in both chambers of Congress reopened the door to earmarks that Sen. Tom “Bridge to Nowhere” Coburn (R-Okla.) killed in 2011.

For whatever reason, Trump did not then make an issue of the return of earmarks, which is particularly surprising now considering the success he’s having with Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

John Hart, CEO of OpenTheBooks, was Coburn’s communications wizard and he wonders in an important Substack column today why killing earmarks for good is nowhere to be seen on the DOGE agenda. Why is it important? Because:

“In the 11 years before the ban was instituted, from 2000 to 2010, Congress spent an average of $20.4 billion per year on earmarks. In the 11 years the ban was in place, from 2011 to 2021, the average dropped to $7.6 billion — a 61 percent decrease,” Hart writes.

“The earmark ban created savings far beyond earmarks. Coburn often argued that ‘earmarks are the gateway drug to Washington’s spending addiction,’ and history proved him right. Getting rid of earmarks helped Congress sober up and reduce overall spending for the first time since the end of the Korean War shortly after the ban went into effect,” he said.