[S]oft earmarks, while not a new phenomenon, have drawn virtually no attention and were not included in the ethics changes — and current ones under consideration — because Congress does not view them as true earmarks.
Their total cost is not known. But the [Congressional Research Service] found that they amounted to more than $3 billion in one spending bill alone in 2006, out of 13 annual appropriations bills. And the committee that handles the bill, which involves foreign operations, has increasingly converted hard earmarks to soft ones.

Yes, the whole system of earmarking is a system of bluster and threat and fear . . . done quietly. Stephen Slivinski, writing in Business Week, also noted sometime back how easy it is to slip from hard earmarking to soft earmarking:

Congress could simply give a bucket of money to an agency with no strings attached. But then a member of the Appropriations committee would write a letter to the department head that read something like, “Gee, wouldn’t it be nice if Project X got some of this pot of money?”
Can you really blame a department head who reads a letter like that — from a member of Congress who controls his budget and oversees his agency — and obliges?

However, since late January, there has been on file an Executive Order from the president directing the Executive Branch to ignore such requests. The tough part of it is that, if it actually turns out that this executive move scuttles substantial anti-soft-earmark blackmail, we will almost certainly see soft earmarks turn hard faster than yesterday’s oatmeal.

So does it all boil down to politicians? We may be in the deepest of doo, then, for the temptation to spend money quickly, and without debate, is too great for most politicians. A number of congressional Republicans have made seemingly bold moves against the pork system, yes (I have reported on them in the past). And there has been scattered Democratic interest in resisting pork, too. For some reason, though, Barack Obama’s March challenge to Hillary Clinton fizzled and sputtered and impressed only a few. There has not been much talk since.

Are You a Porker Too?
We work hard for the money; we don’t want it spent so easily that soft words are all that’s needed. It should be voted on. Openly. Honestly. And preferably defeated.

How can we — individual citizens — make a difference?

Well, one way might be to speak up locally, in government meetings, against even asking for pork spending — hard or soft — from the federal government. Such projects are often broached first at the city and county level, then at the federal. Your local “economic development council,” or whatever you call it in your area, has representatives dressed in good clothing, and their job is to speak up for pork whenever they can. Perhaps if more people stood up against such folk — against the proponents of projects that depend for their very existence on outstretched hands, reaching across the Potomac — politicians on Capitol Hill might be a little less inclined to make either a hard push or a soft one for pork.

In Democracy in America (1835-40), Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville expressed his astonishment at how many committees and organizations there were, trying to do good work: Build things; Help folks; Sponsor events. The burgeoning of this culture was unparalleled in his time.

Just as hard earmarks get turned into soft earmarks — and turned back into hard earmarks again — so too, in our time, has too much of America’s community-based industry been transformed from volunteer funding to conscript funding . . . that is, to tax-based funding through the porking system.

It is time to turn this around. Before it is too late.

Before we Americans become oinkers all.