The Swine Line

OK, only in a policy-wonk hell like Washington, D.C. could a “White Paper” on earmarks be considered a “hot” item.  But that is exactly how Washington Post veteran reporter Jeff Birnbaum described reactions to this 6-page “research” paper which is supposedly making its way around Capitol Hill.     
Well, not everyone on the Hill got it, I guess, since this [...]

Filed under: Appropriations, Earmarks, In The News, Pork | 1 Comment »

Today’s USA Today has an article by reporter Dennis Cauchon about how state bureaucracies are hiring up an ever increasing number of workers.  This is occurring because of the economic downturn:
Federal, state and local governments are hiring new workers at the fastest pace in six years, helping offset job losses in the private sector.
Governments added [...]

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Remember when I blogged about a bill that Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.) was going to introduce that would allow individuals who think they don’t pay enough in taxes to easily pay more?  Well, we have a bill number now: H.R. 5783 and there are 44 sponsors as of April 14.  Is your Congressman or Congresswoman one of [...]

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Tom Schatz discusses the missed opportunities for reform in the Farm Bill with CNBC’s Becky Quick on Squawk Box.

Filed under: Farm Bill, In The News, Media Hits, Pork, Reform, Video | No Comments »

Hate to say “we told you so,” but maybe pointing out CAGW’s prescience on ethanol mandates will encourage lawmakers to heed our advice in the future.
March 20, 2008:
Corn Ethanol is Not a Panacea

When corn is converted into fuel, less of it is available for human and animal consumption, driving up the price of products made [...]

Filed under: Pork | 1 Comment »

Wastewatcher, April 2008

Coconut Road Outrage
by Leslie K. Paige
An update on the ongoing drama associated with what Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has dubbed “the immaculate earmark.”
Fill’er Up with Politics
by Elizabeth Wright
The Air Force refueling tanker saga started with a provision added to the fiscal 2002 Defense Appropriations Act directing the Air Force to lease 100 [...]

Filed under: Defense, Earmarks, Pork, Waste, Wastewatcher | No Comments »

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), the nation’s premiere taxpayer watchdog, and the Tennessee Center for Policy Research (TCPR), Tennessee’s free market think tank, unveiled the 2008 Tennessee Pork Report: Waste, Fraud and Abuse of Your Tax Dollars Exposed.  The report is the third Tennessee Pork Report in as many years to expose wasteful spending by [...]

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I apologize for dredging up those long buried memories and invoking the comical words of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.).  Hey, at least I didn’t salute….well, OK, I did salute, but at least you didn’t have to witness that.  
Anyway, according to the fine folks over at National Review Online, there may be a serious congressional challenger to CAGW’s Porker of the [...]

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Today, National Journal reporter Ira R. Allen writes about criticism of Sen. McCain’s proposal to give drivers a hiatus from the federal gas tax for the summer.  The criticism comes from one Jack Schenendorf, identified as the Vice-Chairman of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, a Republican transportation expert, and former adviser to [...]

Filed under: Pork | 1 Comment »

Seattle Post-Intelligencer  reports on our April Porkers of the Month.  Reps. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) and Todd Tiahrt (R-Kans.) respond:
Dicks, Tiahrt ‘Porkers of the Month’ over tanker
George Behan, a spokesman for Dicks, discounted the criticism, saying Dicks believes that the Air Force decision in favor of the Airbus tanker was “flawed.”
Citing the Boeing tanker’s smaller size relative [...]

Filed under: Defense, In The News, Media Hits, Pork, Porker | 1 Comment »

The White House is seeking more than $2.5 million in FY2009 to cover the Perks of Office enjoyed by our ex-Commanders-in-Chief, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.  Among the items taxpayers will be covering:  Clinton’s $79,000 phone tab, $111,000 Bush is seeking for “other services,” and Carter’s $15,000 request for postage. 
The largest line item is $544,000 [...]

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Tom Schatz announced the April Porkers of the Month - Reps. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) and Todd Tiahrt (R-Kans.) - on CNBC’s Pork Watch today.  Rep. Tiahrt also appeared on the segment to defend his interference with the defense procurement process.

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CAGW Names Reps. Dicks and Tiahrt Porkers of the Month
Washington, D.C. - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Reps. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) and Todd Tiahrt (R-Kans.) April Porkers of the Month for threatening to reverse a $35 billion Air Force refueling tanker contract award to Northrop Grumman.  The losing bidder, the Boeing Company, has [...]

Filed under: Defense, Pork, Porker | No Comments »

CBS Evening News’ Sharyl Attkisson reports on an earmark for the wealthy Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.
This project is listed in the 2008 Congressional Pig Book:
$1,648,850 for the Shedd Aquarium by Senate appropriator Richard Durbin (D-Ill), Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), House appropriator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.). The aquarium’s website says the facility [...]

Filed under: Earmarks, In The News, Media Hits, Pig Book, Pork, Video | No Comments »

Today’s Washington Post relates yesterday’s developments on the investigation into the $10 million Coconut Road earmark.  After the Senate rejected Sen. Coburn’s amendment to convene a bicameral panel to get to the bottom of the mystery of how this earmark morphed from a general purpose earmark to widen I-75 in Florida into what could potentially be a political pay-off to a campaign contributor of Rep. [...]

Filed under: Appropriations, Earmarks, In The News, Pig Book, Pork, Porker | 1 Comment »

Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) has written this special to the Orlando Sentinel.  You can read it here and I encourage you to do so, but I put a teaser just below.  He offers an economic analysis that politicians and taxpayers would be wise to think about.
“A market bubble is created by easy-money policy and speculative investment followed by a [...]

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Moments ago we heard that the Senate Democrats have set a 60-vote supermajority for passage of Sen. Coburn’s amendement to initiate a bipartisan investigation into how the $10 million earmark to widen a portion of I-75 in Florida back in the 2005 highway bill morphed mysteriously into a corporate welfare earmark for a land developer with ties [...]

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So says Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)!  And she’s right.  Why, then, doesn’t she want the Senate to uncover the truth about who that person might be?
Not surprisingly, the subject is congressional earmarking and the corruptive habits earmarking engenders in Washington’s political class.  
The 2008 technical corrections bill to the 2005 Transportation Authorization bill is currently bogged down in the Senate because one [...]

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OK, follow me here. 
The House is now dealing with a “technical corrections” bill related to the 2005 Transportation Authorization bill, SAFTEA-LU.  Oddly enough, it is called the Technical Corrections Act of 2008.  Technical corrections bills are usually aimed at fixing minor drafting errors and making small edits in the previously-passed legislation.  But technical corrections bills have gained an increasingly unsavory [...]

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The Washington Post’s duo of James V. Grimaldi and Jacqueline Trescott have once again exposed lavish and wasteful spending and mismanagement at the Smithsonian Institution.  I wrote about this exactly a year ago for CAGW’s WasteWatcher.  Read the litany of stories of chronic Smithsonian boondoggles and bumbling here and here and here, all by the same two reporters at [...]

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Former President Clinton (who is among those who have claimed to be unfairly undertaxed and should put his money where his mouth is) has taken full advantage of the perks available to him for having held the presidential office. 
The Politico reports: 
Taxpayers fund Bill Clinton spending
The Clintons have made a $100-million fortune since leaving the White House, but [...]

Filed under: Entitlements, In The News, Waste | 1 Comment »

I was at the official unveiling of Rep. John Campbell’s legislation, “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is” today.  This bill would amend the Tax Code to allow individuals to voluntarily pay more in taxes.  It would also place a line on the IRS tax form to make it real easy for them to give [...]

Filed under: Budget, Pork, Taxes | 2 Comments »

King of Pork Sen. Robert C. Byrd had some choice words for CAGW in response to the 2008 Pig Book.
W.Va. Again Ranks High on Federal ‘Pork’ List
“This annual report, done by Washington insiders, is pure hogwash,” he stated. “An earmark may be pork to some political chatter box on television, but to many communities in [...]

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Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) and the Illinois Policy Institute have released the 2008 Illinois Piglet Book, identifying $686 million in wasteful spending in the state budget.  
The $686 Million in Illinois Wasteful Spending includes:
·      $4 million for a Ford Technical Training Center in Chicago Heights;
·      $1 million for the Illinois film office in Chicago;
·      $920,000 [...]

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because that wouldn’t be fair.  It’s just that his list of earmark requests for fiscal year 2009 happens to be among the first to begin trickling out to the public. 
It won’t be long until he is joined by a legion of other pork-barrel spenders and we’ll try to keep you abreast of the tsunami of requests that continue to roll into the committees.  [...]

Filed under: Appropriations, Budget, Earmarks, Pig Book, Pork, Waste | No Comments »

The Onion (a satirical newspaper) has a great blurb mocking wasteful and ridiculous earmarks:
Group Blasts Pork-Barrel Spending
The watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste has released its latest edition of the “Pig Book,” a list of government earmark spending the organization considers egregious. Here are some of the expenditures cited by the report:

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), [...]

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Watch Tom Schatz on this morning’s CNBC Pork Watch discussing Rep. John Campbell’s (R-Calif.) bill to allow people who say they are’t being taxed enough to give more than their required tax amount.  It’s the Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is Act.

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See President Tom Schatz on CNBC’s Pork Watch Wed., April 9 at 6:50am eastern - check local listings!

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Keep up to date on who is taking earmarks and who isn’t.  There is a growing recognition on both sides of the aisle that the earmarki process is broken and by refusing to take part, they are hoping to force reforms.  The House Republican Study Committee has a list up of the 37 members of [...]

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On the heels of the wildly successful 2008 Congressional Pig Book comes the 2008 Illinois Piglet Book! 
On April 9, CAGW and the Illinois Policy Institute will release the latest Illinois Piglet Book.  The Illinois Piglet combines elements of two perennial CAGW publications, the Congressional Pig Book and Prime Cuts, with the Illinois Policy Institute’s knowledge of [...]

Filed under: Piglet, Pork, State Issues | No Comments »