Our friends at EPIC have done a great public service in spotlighting the proliferation of earmarks in the Republican budget bill this year.  We know the amount of money is not excessive in the grand scheme of things, but as our old friend and Senator Tom Coburn used to say, “earmarks are the gateway drug to trillion dollar spending bills.”

What is particularly outrageous is the multitude of Democrat earmarks that are related to gender identity and sex change operations. Why would taxpayers have to fund these?  Why would Republicans agree to this? Here is a short sample:

• • • Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) included a $3 million earmark to the Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC), a Brooklyn-based local activist group, for “community facility enhancements.” The FAC promotes increased welfare spending, economic and environmental regulations to burden private sector construction, and socialized housing.
    • Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) included a $2 million earmark for pediatric mental health services at Rady’s Children’s Hospital in San Diego. Rady’s operates a center dedicated to pediatric “gender affirming care” including gender transition surgeries for minors.
    • Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) included more than $3 million dollars for Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Hennepin operates a pediatric gender and sexual health clinic that provides both mental and physical care to children, adolescents, and young adults. The clinic offers puberty blockers and hormone treatments, as well as referrals to surgeons and specialists for gender surgeries on children.
    • Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) included a $1 million earmark for New York City’s Metropolitan Opera Association (Met Opera) to make elevators compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act… The Met Opera has an annual budget of more than $330 million and has assets of more than half a billion dollars.
    • Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) included a $375,000 earmark for arts education to Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts.
    • Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) inserted  a $1.5 million earmark for pedestrian safety signals in San Francisco… This project is located in the infamous Tenderloin neighborhood notorious as a focal point of crime, homelessness, drug use, public defecation, and other types of disorder.