Cheese Factories on the Moon

It has become part of US political convention to attack 'earmarks' - legislative provisions that direct funds to specific projects - as wasteful and corrupt. In this provocative book Scott A. Frisch and Sean Q. Kelly argue that in fact earmarks are good for American democracy. Using extensive interviews with Washington insiders and detailed examples they illustrate how earmark projects that were pilloried in fact responded to the legitimate needs of local communities, needs that would otherwise have gone unmet. They also demonstrate that media coverage of earmarks tends to be superficial and overly-dramatic. Cheese Factories on the Moon is a much-needed challenge to a widespread but deeply flawed 'consensus' about what is wrong with US congressional spending. Chapter 1 Whose Pork Is It Anyway?; Chapter 2 “No Money Shall Be Drawn from the Treasury …”; Part I Congress, the Executive, and Earmarks; Chapter 3 Responding to Local Conditions; Chapter 4 Earmarks and the National Interest; Chapter 5 Earmarks and the Executive Branch; Part II Earmarks, the Media, and Lobbyists; Chapter 6 Earmarks and the Media; Chapter 7 Lobbyists and Earmarks; Part III The Earmarks Explosion and the Paradox of Reform; Chapter 8 The Explosion of Earmarks; Chapter 9 Earmarks and the Paradox of Reform;