Watch Tom Schatz discuss appropriations pork with MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson:
Paying for waste?
Filed under: Appropriations, In The News, Video | No Comments »
CAGW still wants to know what the presidential candidates plan to do to get rid of pork projects. See the question we submitted for the debate last night:
Filed under: In The News, Pork, Reform, Video | No Comments »
Filed under: Pork, Video | 4 Comments »
CAGW Hails FCC’s Caution on 70/70 Rule Regulation
“Chairman Martin has resorted to cherry-picking data in an attempt to increase government control of cable TV at the expense of consumers and the free market. The 70/70 rule is a relic from before the time of the Internet, satellite TV, and telephone fiber networks and should be [...]
Filed under: Regulation, Technology | No Comments »
Article in the Times West Virginian about Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), CAGW’s King of Pork:
Byrd has helped earmark nearly $229 million in three major spending bills for fiscal year 2008. Most of that money will find its way to West Virginia.
…Byrd’s largest single allocation is a $54 million earmark in the defense spending bill for the [...]
Filed under: Appropriations, Defense, Earmarks, In The News, Media Hits, Pork, Porker | No Comments »
Breakdown of projects and dollar amounts in LHHS by party affiliation:
Party Projects % Dollar Amount %
Democrats 1060 47% $458 million 46%
Republicans 759 34% $317 million 31%
Indep. (Sanders) 5 0.2% $850K
Both 419 19% $258 million 26%
TOTAL 2243 100% $1.033 billion 103%*
*due to rounding
Filed under: Appropriations, Earmarks, Pork | No Comments »
The November Wastewatcher features the following articles:
Reform Earmark Reform
Mini-SCHIP Sinks
California State Government Pigs Out
CAGW Unveils New Blog
Filed under: Appropriations, Earmarks, Pork | No Comments »
Press Release: Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today makes public a comprehensive, searchable database of the 2,243 earmarks worth $1 billion in the Fiscal 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (Labor-HHS) Appropriations Act, H.R. 3043.
Filed under: Appropriations, Earmarks, Reform | No Comments »
See Tom Schatz take on November Porker of the Month Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) and his “First Tee” Defense earmark on this week’s CNBC Pork Watch.
Filed under: Defense, Earmarks, In The News, Media Hits, Pork, Porker, Video | No Comments »
Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard argues that advocates for limited government and fiscal restraint shouldn’t give up the ship of state. One interesting observation:
Divided government–Congress controlled by one party, the White House by the other–is a boon to limiting spending. Going back a half century, a study by William Niskanen of the Cato Institute [...]
Filed under: Appropriations, Defense, In The News, Reform | No Comments »
Ok, so the 1998 tobacco settlement was supposed to fund tobacco education, prevention, or cessation. According to The Eureka Reporter,
“For the past three fiscal years, Humboldt County [California] has not spent a single dollar of the $1.3 million it receives from the 1998 tobacco settlement on tobacco education, prevention or cessation. Instead, the entire sum [...]
Filed under: Pork | No Comments »
An Aviation Week Blog post reports that Boeing is poised to deliver the final of three luxury jets to shuttle congressional delegations around the world for their junkets.
Filed under: Pork | 1 Comment »
Looks like Trent Lott will be leaving Washington, D.C. before the end of the year.
Filed under: Earmarks, In The News | No Comments »
Many of you are old enough to remember the 1970’s…when energy prices skyrocketed, there were long lines to get gas, and your license number, whether it was an odd or even number, determined the day you could fill up your tank. Red and green flags were set out in front of gas stations to inform [...]
Filed under: Energy | No Comments »
The Washington Post reports that the scientist in charge of the UN agency responsible for tracking and funding AIDS programs worldwide, UNAIDS, is set to reveal that his agency has long been overestimating the size, scope, and course of the disease for many years! The Post reports that new, “revised” numbers will show that the spread of the disease has been slowing for awhile [...]
Filed under: Appropriations, Healthcare, In The News | No Comments »
Today’s WSJ Online points out ($) that many of the private-sector entrepreneurs, those mad-cap, high-flying, risk-taking venture capiltalists, are backing companies who aim to solve our so-called “global warming crisis” are really all about climbing on the federal subsidy bandwagon, getting in on the ground floor of federal handouts for unproven and, so far unprofitable, [...]
Filed under: Appropriations, Earmarks, Energy, In The News | No Comments »
OK, this CBS story is from October, but it is too good not to post. In a dispute over the disposition of a bunch of cats who live on Ernest Hemingway’s estate down in Key West, Florida, the USDA has spent more than 270 government man hours, and deployed at least three government lawyers, four inspectors, six veterinarians. The USDA has [...]
Filed under: In The News, Video | 2 Comments »
Each day brings more alarming news ($) related to counterfeit pharmaceuticals and problems with certifying the provenance of chemical compounds being used in phramaceuticals. Keep these kinds ($) of stories in mind whenever your member of Congress starts telling you what a great idea it is to allow the legal importation of drugs from outside of the U.S.
Ask those drug importation proponents how [...]
Filed under: Healthcare, In The News, Reform | No Comments »
Well, your pocketbooks are safe – for now. Everyone in Washington is leaving for the Thanksgiving holiday and it is fast becoming a virtual ghost town. One outstanding issue yet to be resolved is the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The first SCHIP bill was vetoed by the president Unable to [...]
Filed under: Healthcare | No Comments »
Late last evening, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) announced that he has received credible assurances that a secret provision that was tucked into the THUD approps bill which would have prohibited the public from reviewing detailed federal budget information, will be removed from the final legislation. Here is the gist of it:
“Specifically, the offending provision tucked within the conference report for [...]
Filed under: Pork | 5 Comments »
Congress Daily PM reports that budget negotiations between President Bush and Congress over the contentious $22 billion discrepancy are proceeding:
“Senate Majority Leader Reid said today that Democrats will send President Bush an omnibus appropriations bill in December that splits the $22 billion difference between their budgets and dare him to veto the huge package. That [...]
Filed under: Pork | 7 Comments »
As I write, serious arm twisting is going on in Washington to get a veto-proof re-authorization of SCHIP, or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. SCHIP’s original purpose was to assist low-income families without health insurance, and whose income was too high to qualify for Medicaid, to get their children insured. Generally, families with incomes up [...]
Filed under: Healthcare | 5 Comments »
CAGW was (briefly) featured in this story on American Public Radio’s Marketplace last evening. The full GAO report is here. Read it and weep. Here is a taste:
“If an effective system were in place to dock their Medicaid payments, the government would have recouped $70 million to $160 million in the 2006 fiscal year, the GAO [...]
Filed under: Pork | 1 Comment »
Read more
Porker of the Month:
Rep. James Clyburn
Filed under: Defense, Earmarks, Pork, Porker | 1 Comment »
Once again, President Bush has signaled that Congress has gone hog wild, this time by spending too much on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations. He intends to veto the bill, and he should.
Here is our Pork Alert on the THUD approps bill, crammed full of outrageous earmarks.
Filed under: Appropriations, Earmarks, Pig Book, Pork | No Comments »
See VP of Policy David Williams discuss Defense Pork with Glenn Beck on CNN Headline News at 7pm and 9pm eastern. Check local listings.
Filed under: Defense, In The News | No Comments »
Today, CAGW and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Foundation released their analysis of waste in the CA state budget.
Read the press release
Download the report
Filed under: Piglet, Pork, State Issues | No Comments »
Today the Transportation/HUD conference report was released….
This will link you directly to conference report. CAGW is cranking out some numbers as we speak and we’ll have a Pork Alert out by the end of the day.
One serious head’s up, though: The THUD bill contains a provision tucked away on pg. 79 which will gut essential transparency provisions. [...]
Filed under: Appropriations, Earmarks, Pig Book, Pork, Porker, Reform | 2 Comments »
Out to Pasture.
Filed under: Pork | No Comments »
President Bush has vetoed the larded up Labor/HHS Appropriations bill. Here is one of the reasons:
“This bill has too many earmarks. I set out clear goals for the Congress to reform the earmarking process. The Congress chose not to put earmarks in bill text, instead including nearly all in report language, and they did not reach [...]
Filed under: Appropriations, Earmarks, Healthcare, Pork | No Comments »
