Letter: It’s not about the sneakers, folks

You recently carried a piece about Congressman Mark Sanford fighting for sneakers. What the story failed to highlight was the larger issue that he was fighting against: earmarks.

When a law is manufactured to benefit one company and one company alone, in this case New Balance, one should call a spade a spade. This was an earmark — something Congress supposedly got rid of in early 2011. But we can never put it past them to cleverly get around what they said they would do, which is why I was so pleased to see Mark putting their feet (they likely have new New Balances on) to the fire on this.

We are $19 trillion in debt — and a majority in Congress refuses to acknowledge that these earmarks and reckless spending are how we got to where we are. So, simply, thanks Mark for fighting the waste where you can.

This story was originally published June 29, 2016 at 5:49 PM with the headline "Letter: It’s not about the sneakers, folks."