Sen. Cruz Warns of Runaway Spending, Then Files Millions in Earmarks for Hometown Projects
The senator's office clarifies that his spending is investment and their spending is waste, a distinction detectable only by party affiliation
Ink = the flip (fiction). Red = real Republican · Blue = real Democrat.
WASHINGTON — Amid appropriations season, a senator who has spent the year warning of a runaway federal spending crisis quietly filed millions of dollars in earmarks directing money to favored projects back home, a maneuver his office prefers to call 'congressionally directed community investment.'
The Press notes that the term 'earmark' applies, in the American dialect, exclusively to money requested by the opposing party; identical requests filed by one's own side are known as 'community projects,' a linguistic convention that survives every reformer who vows to end it.
Sen. Cruz defended the requests as vital support for his constituents, a defense indistinguishable from the one he denounced as swamp behavior three sentences earlier in the same floor speech.
Budget watchdogs, who track these filings without regard to jersey, confirmed that both parties participate in the practice with gusto, and that the annual ritual of decrying spending while requesting it is the closest thing the chamber has to genuine bipartisanship.
The senator's office declined to reconcile the two positions, noting only that fiscal discipline is a solemn national priority best applied to everyone else's district.
📜 The Receipts
What actually happened: Nonpartisan analysis during the FY2026 appropriations season documented thousands of earmarks worth billions filed by members of both parties, even as lawmakers publicly decried federal overspending.