By John Stanton Roll Call Facing a world without earmarks, House appropriators from both parties are telling colleagues not to request any pork projects this year and are warning that any spending request that looks like it would benefit a single recipient will be treated like an earmark and eliminated. The new system being sketched [...]
Read more»Washington Examiner The third party on Capitol Hill, Washington’s gray-haired conservatives used to grumble, was the “Appropriators Party” — an autonomous, bipartisan bloc of obdurate spenders and shameless porkers who marched in lockstep with their committee leaders and were rewarded with the choicest earmarks. But a rump of conservative Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee [...]
Read more»By Kate Ackley Roll Call Staff Appropriations lobbyists used to have one certainty this time of year: forms to fill out. Piles and piles of forms requesting Congressional earmarks. Spring was the deadline for most Member-sponsored earmark requests, and so this was the silly season for much of K Street. But with earmarks out of [...]
Read more»Business Wire (Washington) – Today, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) issued a statement calling for all members of Congress to stand firm on the earmark moratorium currently in place. CCAGW’s reaction came in response to a March 15, 2011 Roll Call article which described House members of both parties as “starting to [...]
Read more»By Ezra Klein Washington Post Grover Norquist is the president of Americans for Tax Reform and one of the most influential conservative activists in the country. There has been a series of reports recently that he’s fighting to keep Republicans from striking a “grand bargain” on deficit reduction — even if the tax increases are [...]
Read more»By Daniel Strauss The Hill A House Democrat indicated Thursday that lawmakers are getting around the new ban on earmarks by convincing Obama administration officials to fund their pet projects. Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), an appropriator, made the remarks during an appearance on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” program. In response to a question about whether earmark [...]
Read more»By Jack Gruber USA TODAY WASHINGTON — The stopgap spending plan the House of Representatives plans to vote on today cuts $4 billion from this year’s budget, including $2.7 billion in special projects known as “earmarks” that almost nobody planned on spending anyway. It’s a fraction of the $61 billion that House Republicans want to [...]
Read more»Two years ago today, President Obama signed into law a “stimulus package” that his administration promised would keep unemployment under 8 percent. What has been the result of nearly $1 trillion spent on the so-called “stimulus?” Twenty-one months of unemployment at or above 9 percent, 2.6 million jobs lost, unsustainable budget deficits and an ever-growing national debt.
Read more»During the past 20 years, orphan earmarks reduced the amount of money that states would have received in federal highway funding by about $7.5 billion, USA TODAY found. That’s $7.5 billion that states could have used to replace obsolete bridges, repair aging roads and bring jobs to rural areas.
Read more»Republicans dashed Democrats’ hopes for a last-minute deal to allow passage of a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill for all of fiscal 2011. The omnibus reportedly contained more than 6,000 earmarks totaling more than $8 billion in pork-barrel projects including beaver management in North Carolina, mosquito trapping research in Florida, and salt pond restoration in San Francisco.
Read more»Senate Republicans dashed Democrats’ hopes for a last-minute deal to allow passage of a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill for all of fiscal 2011, an act that probably punts most major spending decisions into the next year. The omnibus reportedly contained more than 6,000 earmarks totaling more than $8 billion in pork-barrel projects.
Read more»Senate leaders and top appropriators from both parties racked up more than $2.2 billion in earmarks in the massive omnibus spending bill that Democrats rolled out in the final days of the 111th Congress. Coburn, a staunch earmark foe, found that the newly unveiled omnibus bill includes 6,700 projects that cost $8.3 billion. The leaders’ ability to snag more than one-quarter of the total dollar amount is another sign that the most powerful lawmakers are often the most successful in securing funding for their states.
Read more»Three hundred fifty thousand dollars for cool-season legume research in Idaho, North Dakota and Washington. A half million dollars for road roundabouts in Mississippi. And $1 million for arthropod damage in Nevada. They’re just a few of the 6,600 pet projects lawmakers from both parties – and both chambers – stuck inside an enormous spending bill unveiled by Senate Democrats.
Read more»Members of Congress requested almost 40,000 earmarks that exceeded $100 billion directed to their home districts and states for the current fiscal year, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis to be released Tuesday.
Read more»House Republicans today adopted a ban on earmarks in the 112th Congress, continuing the earmarks ban they already have in place. “This earmark ban shows the American people we are listening and we are dead serious about ending business as usual in Washington,” House Republican Leader John Boehner said in a statement.
Read more»Anyone who’s been listening to the American people can tell you that banning earmarks is a no-brainer. Throughout the year, Americans clamored for Washington to stop spending and start focusing on creating jobs. But Americans weren’t being heard. In 2010 alone, the Democratic majority steered billions of dollars toward more than 9,000 earmarks, without any semblance of accountability.
Read more»Earmarks are not illegal, but to use a political office to get tax dollars for your district in order to win political favor is clearly unethical. And getting them by circumventing the budget and appropriations process is grossly unethical. Yet it has been going on for years, and it is scandalous.
Read more»Sen. Mitch McConnell’s new position against earmarks clears the way in the Senate for a big GOP vote in favor of the ban. With House Republicans also poised to pass a moratorium — thanks to leaders Eric Cantor and John Boehner — the Grand Old Party will stand united against the special-interest projects that have become the poster child of Washington’s spending blowouts.
Read more»Both the Senate and House will begin a lame-duck session this week, and the Senate GOP Conference is expected to vote during a closed-door meeting Tuesday on DeMint’s resolution that would create a two-year ban on earmarks.
Read more»A group of Senate conservatives issued an early challenge to their Republican colleagues, calling on them in an open letter to support a ban on earmarks — a stance the House GOP embraced earlier this year.
Read more»House Republicans took an unprecedented stand in March, imposing an immediate moratorium on earmarks for the remainder of the Congress. Yet, because the governing rules of one Congress cannot bind the next, this moratorium will expire on Jan. 3, 2011. That should not be allowed to happen.
Read more»John Kline and House Republican leaders have asked that earmarks be kept of any spending bills advanced in the lame-duck session that will follow the Nov. 2 midterm elections.
Read more»More than 50 Republicans, including Minnesota Republican John Kline, and other GOP leaders, Tuesday sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., beseeching her not to include any earmarks in catch-all omnibus spending legislation Democrats hope to pass after the election.
Read more»In a speech today, House Republican Leader John Boehner promised to “bring fundamental change to the manner in which Washington spends taxpayers’ money,” which includes earmark reform, if he is elected Speaker of the House.
Read more»To reduce spending and reignite growth, this Congress or its successor should take two actions. First, immediately cut the level of spending that has been increased so dramatically since 2008. Second, institute an “inflation-minus-one” rule to constrain future spending increases.
Read more»Republicans appear to be shying away from what has historically been among the most coveted assignments on Capitol Hill — a seat on the House Appropriations Committee. The post is not so plum anymore thanks to rising voter anger over federal spending and the party’s own decision to prohibit Members from requesting earmarks for their districts.
Read more»Come election time, incumbents typically tout a lengthy record of accomplishments, including all the ‘bacon’ they brought home for locals to feast on. In light of a record deficit however, to many the projects look reckless and wasteful. It’s not about being a Republican or a Democrat, but being in office when the pig got fat.
Read more»After focusing on health care and various regulatory bills for over a year, the President and many Congressional Democrats are pushing for new stimulus proposals. The various new proposals would increase spending to well over another $200 billion.
Read more»Ignoring Republican complaints about wasteful federal spending, Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln is reminding voters — in dollars — of the pork-barrel projects she has delivered to Arkansas during nearly 16 years in Washington.
Read more»An examination of details in the White House’s 50-page report on the so-called stimulus unveiled Tuesday by Vice President Joe Biden reveals something a bit different than they claimed: a collection of rosy projections that ignore many of the challenges, pitfalls and economic realities in all those areas.
Read more»As schools handed out pink slips to teachers this spring, states made a beeline to Washington to plead for money for their ravaged education budgets. But now that the federal government has come through with $10 billion, some of the nation’s biggest school districts are balking at using their share of the money to hire teachers right away.
Read more»John Kline was named a “Taxpayer Hero” by the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) for his record of fighting to cut wasteful spending, reduce the national debt, increase government transparency, and let Americans keep more of their hard-earned dollars.
Read more»The Obama administration has paid out less than a third of the nearly $230 billion allocated to big infrastructure projects in the economic-stimulus program. Now Republicans are zeroing in on the unspent stimulus money in fresh attacks on the administration’s economic policy.” More people believe that Elvis Presley is alive than [that] the stimulus created jobs,” U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.), a member of the House Republican leadership, said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.
Read more»Prominent Republican lawmakers say the 10,000 jobs created by federal economic-stimulus money at South Carolina’s Savannah River Site and other nuclear complexes are wasteful, costing taxpayers more than $194,000 a job.
Read more»Earmarks are way down in the 2011 spending bills being drafted in the House, thanks to new restrictions that lawmakers imposed on themselves. The amount of earmarked money is down by roughly 40 percent in three 2011 appropriations bills in the House compared to last year’s bills, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Read more»House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) is calling out Rep. John Adler for proposing a $1.1 billion budget cut only to fight Republican efforts to bring the idea to the House floor.
Read more»Some local officials are spending freely to post street signs that let people know the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — better known as the stimulus bill — has funded a highway project in local neighborhoods, an expense that has Republicans blistering over why taxpayer money is being used to promote how taxpayer money is being used.
Read more»More than 15 Senate candidates — ranging from tea party conservatives to liberal Democratic hopefuls — have promised to either forgo pet projects or ban the practice altogether, putting them in direct conflict with senior senators who view earmarking as both a constitutional right and a senatorial privilege.
Read more»Senate GOP appropriators’ recent call for a domestic spending freeze marked a sharply political turn for the historically bipartisan panel — and a significant victory for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who quietly pushed the group to take the aggressive move.
Read more»A new poll shows Americans would prefer Congress to reduce the deficit rather than increase spending to promote economic growth.
Read more»On highways being repaired with federal stimulus funds, you can see signs that say, “Putting America to Work. Project Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” There are nearly 1,000 of them in Illinois. Republicans think there are better uses of the $787 billion than tributes to politicians who have done nothing more than appropriate money furnished by their long-suffering constituents.
Read more»According to the Wall Street Journal, signs in recent weeks indicate that Congressional Democrats are planning an ambitious, lame-duck session to muscle through bills in December they don’t want to defend before the November election. A Senate aide said that “some of the biggest porkers on both sides of the aisle are leaving office this year, and a lame-duck session would be their last hurrah for spending.”
Read more»Will They Listen? Democrats on a blue-ribbon deficit-reduction panel suggested spending cuts would likely have to outweigh tax increases if the nation is to seriously tackle its ballooning financial obligations. The discussions came as congressional budget analysts projected that federal debt would rise to 62% of gross domestic product by the end of 2010, the highest level since the aftermath of World War II.
Read more»The world’s leading economies had a message for President Obama over the weekend: Enough, already. You know the U.S. has gone way, way down the path toward unsustainable debt when governments in Europe — spendaholic Europe — lecture the administration on fiscal restraint, and ultimately carry the day.
Read more»Earlier this year, House Republicans voted to impose a one-year ban on requesting earmarks, the items lawmakers insert into bills and reports to direct money to their states and districts back home. Pointing to the 2011 homeland security spending bill, they said the early indications show that it’s working.
Read more»“I have no idea why he is trying to do this now. I seriously don’t,” said Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), adding that there has been “no talk” about trying to advance the proposal in Democratic leadership meetings that she has attended. … “Lord, I want to tell you right now, if this House tries to take up another major bill, I don’t know what we’re doing to do,” she said.
Read more»With the support of Sen. Chris Dodd, D.-Conn., the federal government has awarded $54 million to Connecticut’s politically well-connected Mohegan Indian tribe, which operates one of the highest grossing casinos in the U.S. The tribe runs the sprawling Mohegan Sun casino, halfway between New York City and Boston, which earned more than $1.3 billion in gross revenues in 2009.
Read more»Appropriations lobbyists are accustomed to operating in an uncertain world. But this appropriations season is even more precarious than past years with new earmark bans in place. That, combined with the House’s slow pace with the appropriations process, has put K Street in a serious bind.
Read more»In a letter to congressional leaders, President Obama defended last year’s huge economic stimulus package, saying it helped break the economy’s free fall, but argued that more spending is urgent and unavoidable. “We must take these emergency measures,” he wrote in an appeal aimed primarily at members of his own party.
Read more»Liberals are second-guessing their endorsement of a measure they feel is now strangling their constituents in a shortsighted effort to claim the high ground on fiscal responsibility. The ill-defined “emergency” pay-go exemption is leading to a “free-for-all every time something comes up,” said Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), one of the earlier liberal converts to the pay-go cause.
Read more»A little over a year ago the Obama administration passed a staggering $787 billion stimulus package designed to rescue the economy. More than half of that money has now been spent, and the economy is still just creaking along. But now people are realizing that there is a dark side to this spending orgy. It has to end, and then we have to pay the bill. If we need any reminders that the day of reckoning is coming we have only to look to Europe.
Read more»From the Wall Street Journal: According to Harvard research which covered 1967-2008, federal dollars “directly supplant private sector activity — they literally undertake projects the private sector was planning to do on its own.”
Read more»House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) is asking Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) to disregard all Republican requests for projects in the Water Resources Development Act reauthorization he is drafting — even if the original sponsors have not yet withdrawn their projects.
Read more»Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a leading earmark opponent, said the moratorium on earmarking should be extended into next year if lawmakers can’t come up with a plan for real reform. Flake has railed against the earmark process, arguing that it shows Congress’s inability to deal with spending and the country’s debt. “Unless we make some progress on some real changes, we have a moratorium,” Flake said.
Read more»Minority Leader John Boehner on Wednesday warned House Republicans that anyone who ignores the Conference-wide earmark ban and fails to withdraw their earmark requests will risk losing their committee assignments next year.
Read more»Is America losing its taste for bacon? When it comes to the congressional variety, members of the powerful appropriations committees are finding that holding the nation’s purse strings — and the power the positions afford in doling out pork-barrel projects back home — are no guarantee these days for re-election. Six of the 13 members of the Senate Appropriations Committee up for re-election this year have announced they’ll retire or have lost a primary challenge.
Read more»The bill to fund the war in Afghanistan has set up a clash between the chambers over earmarks, as leaders in the House are trying to crack down on the practice and their Senate colleagues resist.
Read more»Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and a bipartisan group of Senators will propose legislation Tuesday to create a new, centralized earmark database to provide the public with more consistent and accessible information on earmark requests.
Read more»Controversial earmarks always make for sensational headlines, usually casting a politician in a negative light. Even though the media often focuses on these scandals, politicians keep on trying to put them in legislation, either hoping no one will notice, or at least not mind too much.
Read more»Several New Jersey agencies that handle federal stimulus dollars say they can no longer report projected job-creation numbers for any stimulus project. Instead, they are now reporting only actual jobs created — and a dip in job-creation numbers is already evident when compared with the figures Democratic federal and state administrations had been reporting.
Read more»Nearly two-thirds of Americans do not believe the $787 billion stimulus package the president passed last year has helped create jobs, according to a new Pew Research Poll. Sixty-two percent of those polled said the stimulus hasn’t contributed to job creation while 33 percent said the package has.
Read more»Members of Congress passed more than 9,100 earmarks valued at $16.5 billion for Fiscal Year 2010, according to the newly released 2010 Congressional Pig Book from Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW).
Read more»CNN reports that while the economic recovery may be picking up steam as employers boost payrolls, economists think the government’s stimulus package and jobs bill had little to do with the rebound, according to a survey released Monday, April 26.
Read more»House Republicans are pushing a House resolution that could force Democrats to vote on a complete year-long ban on earmarks, as Republicans hope to up the ante in the ongoing demonization of pork barrel projects.
Read more»House Republicans on Thursday plan to introduce a resolution to ratchet up the pressure on Democrats to join the GOP in a yearlong earmark ban. The resolution, authored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and backed by House Republican leadership, will express a “sense of the House” that Democrats should implement an earmark moratorium and use the money that it saves to decrease discretionary spending.
Read more»The annual ritual of rendering unto Caesar on April 15 brings with it the always-useful Congressional Pig Book. Compiled by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), the “Pig Book” lists some of the more outrageous spending indulged in by our “public servants” in pursuit of the only bipartisan activities still practiced in Washington: spending and re-election.
Read more»While Democratic Members waited in line last week to publicly declare the urgency and legitimacy of their transportation and housing earmark requests, not a single Republican joined them.
Read more»With the focus on health care, some may have missed the fact that a bright line has been drawn between the parties, Congressman Jeff Flake says. House Republicans have agreed to a unilateral earmark moratorium for the remainder of the year. Universal Republican opposition to the health care bill was expected. Universal Republican opposition to earmarks was not.
Read more»The Freedom Foundation of Minnesota recently released its “Top 10 List” of earmark requests this year by members of the Minnesota Congressional delegation. It’s worth noting, John Kline, Michele Bachmann, and Erik Paulsen did not request earmarks this year.
Read more»A USA Editorial suggests that once thought of as the wiser and more mature of the two chambers of Congress, the Senate is quickly building a reputation as too tied up in its traditions and the privileges of individual members to act in the interest of the American people. Handouts for private companies invite corruption, and the Senate should ban them.
Read more»A Heritage Foundation Web Memo reports that rather than actually examine the performance of the post-stimulus economy, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) essentially re-released its old forecast that the stimulus would likely create jobs.
Read more»As Congressional Democrats continue to wheel and deal in backrooms – using pork-barrel projects to grease the skids for their government takeover of health care – House Republicans answered the call of the American people by approving a moratorium on earmarks.
Read more»House Republicans heeded John Kline’s call and approved a conference-wide moratorium on earmarks today.
Read more»The federal government ran up the largest monthly deficit in history in February, keeping the flood of red ink on track to top last year’s record for the full year. The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the February deficit totaled $220.9 billion, 14 percent higher than the previous record set in February of last year.
Read more»Federal investigators have received more than 730 allegations of waste or fraud in stimulus act funding so far, have canceled the contracts of some bad actors and have sent a couple of dozen cases to the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service and prosecutors.
Read more»According to the Washington Post, a group of Democratic senators called Wednesday for the government to halt a federal stimulus program aimed at building wind farms and other clean-energy projects, arguing that too much of the money spent so far has gone to create jobs overseas.
Read more»The President is in Savannah, Ga., today trying to reshape perceptions of a failed pork-laden stimulus plan that the White House says has pumped more than $130 million into the local economy, but nonetheless has left many there grumbling about what they see as its lack of effectiveness.
Read more»The one-year old stimulus has not stimulated much of anything, in part because it is more ideological than wise; the left cannot imagine government spending that does not make the world better or green projects that do not work. The bigger reason is that the bill afforded politicians a chance for what they love best: wasteful, foolish pork that furthers their careers even if there is that other problem, namely hurt to the nation.
Read more»On the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s so-called stimulus being signed into law, USA Today reports more than $3.5 billion in economic stimulus funds are going to programs that the President wants to slash in his new budget.
Read more»If you are hoping to visit the newest crown jewel in America’s park system chosen by Congress, throw away the car keys and open up your wallet. The 2,900 pristine acres of beachfront property were not cheap — or even in the United States. Two weeks ago, on a near party line vote, a huge Democratic majority in the House agreed to spend $50 million of taxpayer money to buy the Castle Nugent National Historic Park in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Read more»Remember all those jobs supposedly saved or created by the Democrats’ $862 billion stimulus package? While they’re hard to find, most of those that can be identified were public sector jobs – directly reliant on stimulus funds – and it looks like they didn’t get saved for long.
Read more»House Republican Leader John Boehner and Republican Whip Eric Cantor are asking President Obama to force Congress to cut wasteful Washington spending and pledging bipartisan support for this critical effort.
Read more»Stimulus money from Washington is often discussed in terms of “shovel ready” constructions projects that are supposed to create jobs for unemployed Americans. But a school system in Georgia has decided to use stimulus money to attend a 4-day conference sponsored by America’s Choice, which a school spokesman calls “a great thing.”
Read more»Thanks to the failed economic policies of Speaker Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the President, the United States is drawing closer to the kind of debt crisis plaguing some European countries, where a financial emergency forces political leaders to make draconian spending cuts and tax increases to maintain the confidence of international investors.
Read more»Mr. Obama will be relying on some cuts that have previously been proposed without success, on cooperation from a wary Congress and on a yet-to-be set up debt commission to suggest politically difficult choices.
Read more»Recent polls show that the country is evenly divided about President Obama, but confidence in Congress is at an all-time low. Frank Newport of the Gallup organization noted in his year-end wrap-up, “Americans have less faith in their elected representatives than ever before.” One important reason for this lack of faith is wasteful spending – epitomized by the culture of earmarks.
Read more»The President is painting his announced spending freeze as being fiscally responsible, yet, in 2009 alone, overall federal spending rose 18 percent, or $536 billion. Throw in a $65 billion reduction in debt service costs due to low interest rates, and the overall spending increase was 22 percent.
Read more»Upping the ante just a day after losing their 60th Senate seat, Democrats moved this week to seek a $1.9 trillion increase in the federal debt ceiling and give the Treasury adequate borrowing authority past November’s elections and into next year.
Read more»Ten months into President Barack Obama’s first economic stimulus plan, a surge in spending on roads and bridges has had no effect on local unemployment and only barely helped the beleaguered construction industry, an Associated Press analysis has found.
Read more»The multimillion-dollar deals cut with Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and others to win the 60 votes needed for the historic health care reform bill gave President Barack Obama the margin he needed to fulfill a central campaign promise — but may also have upped the ante for future presidential horse trading.
Read more»Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who led the Senate’s investigation of disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, is gearing up to tackle defense earmarks next — with a particular focus on the PMA Group, the now-defunct lobbying powerhouse.
Read more»It wouldn’t be the holiday season without Congress rushing through another pork-filled omnibus spending bill. This year, not even a recession or $1.4 trillion budget deficit prompted even the slightest deviation from business-as-usual budgeting. National Review offers two key observations on this year’s spend-o-rama.
Read more»Democrat Senator Evan Bayh: “At a time when families and businesses are struggling to make ends meet, for Washington to increase federal spending at four times the rate of inflation is just irresponsible. And to have 5,000 pork-barrel earmark appropriations in there, with politicians showing no willingness to cut back at a time when ordinary folks must — well, that is just deeply wrong.”
Read more»Despite a recession and record $1.4 trillion budget deficit, Congress continues to accelerate runaway spending and pork. While families and entrepreneurs are responsibly bringing their own budgets under control, Congress is spending and earmarking as if nothing has changed in the economy.
Read more»According to Taxpayers for Commonsense, the sweeping omnibus package House Democratic leaders are hoping to speed to the floor today, includes 5,224 earmarks worth close to $4 billion. Republicans are responsible for roughly 40 percent of the spending.
Read more»According to the New York Times, federal lawmakers ignored needed bridge repair in the last transportation spending bill in favor of new highway projects supported by special interests, a government watchdog said today.
Read more»After gathering around the Thanksgiving table, bowing our heads in prayer and feasting on the holiday bird, Michelle Malkin wrote it’s only fitting to take a moment to fete the unforgettable turkey of 2009 – the economic “stimulus” package.
Read more»Top 10 lists are the rage, and now Sen. John McCain, one of the loudest whistle-blowers on federal waste, has come out with his own Top 10 list of costly earmarks—and put it out via Twitter. Actually, he’s produced five Top 10 lists, one each from the spending conference reports for homeland security, agriculture, energy and water, interior and commerce, and justice and science.
Read more»According to the Office of Management and Budget, the federal government wasted almost $100 billion dollars of taxpayer money in 2009.
Read more»The U.S. Public Interest Research Group’s Education Fund has released a new report suggesting that large campaign contributions are skewing how transportation projects are funded.
Read more»To get a handle on how out of control federal spending has become, consider this: It surged to $30,000 per household in 2009. That’s up from $21,000 (adjusted for inflation) in the 1980s and ’90s. Yet rather than cut back, Congress plans to spend even more.
Read more»Politico reports that at a closed-door meeting of GOP senators this month, a tirade by Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn about the hypocrisy of using deficits to decry Democratic health care plans while voting for pumped-up appropriations bills was seconded by several senators.
Read more»According to the Washington Post, “a little-known Indiana Democrat who sits on the House Committee that funds the Pentagon… sponsored or supported at least $44 million in earmarks… for more than 15 technology firms… None of the companies operated in [the Congressman's] home state, but nearly all of them donated to [his] campaign just before or soon after receiving the promise of federal money.”
Read more»According to the Washington Examiner, If ever the stars were aligned for Congress to treat our defense budget with due seriousness, this was the time. “But fear not, the season for the defense budget to be raided for personal pet projects has come around once more.”
Read more»Senators diverted $2.6 billion in funds in a defense spending bill to pet projects largely at the expense of accounts that pay for fuel, ammunition and training for U.S. troops, including those fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an analysis.
Read more»According to the Aiken (S.C.) Standard, House Majority Whip and 6th District Congressman James Clyburn is putting pressure on the Department of Energy that stimulus funds he acquired should benefit his interests.
Read more»Sen. John Kerry has inserted into a defense spending bill a $20 million earmark to help fund the construction of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate.
Intended as a memorial to the late senator, regarded by many as one of the most distinguished lawmakers in Massachusetts history, the project might instead become an example of just what’s wrong with our government.
Read more»A newspaper editorial suggests that “maybe the Democratic majority in Congress believes ‘there is no such thing as waste.’ Maybe they’ve never seen the John P. Murtha Airport.”
Read more»According to a New Hampshire newspaper editorial, taxpayer-funded road construction signs promoting the so-called stimulus package are “nothing more than taxpayer-financed propaganda for the Democratic Party.”
Read more»Our federal transportation system is the backbone of the American economy, and we need to continue to invest in it. But there is no clearly defined national vision in terms of project priorities or funding policy. Instead, transportation funding has served primarily as a vehicle for representatives and senators to steer federal dollars back home for pet projects — bringing home the bacon through endless lists of pork barrel projects. That needs to change.
Read more»Members of Congress defend earmarks as federal funds they need for projects that will help their local districts. But the taxpayers’ money goes to such projects as finding ways to utilize wood, preventing brown tree snakes on Guam and supporting California’s vibrant wine industry — in all 50 states and for much longer than originally intended.
Read more»Lawmaker pushes bill to aid workers in Hawaii By Kevin Freking Associated Press Thousands of miles from his Hawaii congressional district, Democratic Rep. Neil Abercrombie has discovered a lifeline for his state’s struggling construction industry – and a potential boost in his campaign for governor. His idea is to legislate high wages for a massive [...]
Read more»Minnesota’s John Kline was one of 22 members of Congress who received a perfect 100 percent score on the 2009 “RePork” card. For the third consecutive year, Kline has refused to participate in the corrupt and corrupting earmarking system . . .
Read more»PLEDGE: Democrats Promised to Sever Ties Between Lobbyists, Institute New Rules and the “Highest” Ethical Standards. REALITY: Murtha’s Earmarks Given Illegally to Brother’s Clients, Big Donors, and Drug Runners.
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