I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the ridiculous comments made by Reps. Roscoe Bartlett and C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger regarding plans to reduce congressional earmarks ("Md. lawmakers aim bipartisan fire at proposed earmark reform," March 12). Mr. Bartlett contends that "earmarks are essential to keeping the U.S. militarily competitive with Russia and China." Who does he think he's kidding? At last check the U.S. consumes over 40 percent of the worldwide spending on defense. China checks in at around 6 percent and Russia near 4 percent. Do we need to continue to ramp up this number?

As for Mr. Ruppersberger, he states that limiting these earmarks "had abdicated Congress' power to spend money." Hello, does he care about the trillions of dollars of debt we already have? Plus the fact that we are adding to the deficit at a record pace each and every month. Perhaps Congress power to spend money should have been "abdicated" a long time ago.

Michael Summers, Marriottsville