Ron Paul, the libertarian advocate and representative from Texas, speaking on the House floor, told the members that they simply did not understand what it meant to vote against earmarking; suggesting it was simply an irrational run of popular emotion to vote against earmarks and hold up legislation that acts as such.

“The truth is that if you removed all the earmarks from the budget you would remove 1% of the budget. So there’s not a lot of savings. But, even if you voted against all the earmarks, actually, you don’t even save the 1% because you don’t save any money. What is done is those earmarks are removed and some of them are very wasteful and unnecessary, but that money then goes to the executive branch,” said Rep. Ron Paul, outlining the simple facts of how budgeting handles earmarked money.

The primary argument for earmarks has been an understanding of where the money is being spent.

“If you don’t like the spending, vote against the bill,” said Paul, “Earmarks really allow transparency and we know exactly where the money is being spent.”

Additionally, Paul says that the term earmark is mostly undefined; calling the use of the nomenclature “earmark” entirely arbitrary. “If you would vote to support the embassy in Baghdad which came up to nearly a billion dollars, that’s not called an earmark. But if you have an earmark for a highway or a building here in the United States, that is called an earmark. But if you vote for a weapons system, it would support and help a district and that’s not considered an earmark.”

Ron Paul’s ‘Campaign for Liberty’ is a dramatic shift in American politics, repairing government to revert to a smaller, more manageable state. His philosophy calls for accountability, and reduction in the size of government supporting a strict adherence to the constitution.

Neil Cavuto from Fox News tried to attack Ron Paul’s voting history on this subject Tuesday, where Ron Paul explained much of his House voting history. “I vote for all tax credits, no matter how silly they might seem. If I can give you any of your money back, I vote for it. So if I can give my district any money back, I encourage that.”

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