The Swine Line

THe Hill newspaper reports on items stuck into what is supposed to be a WAR bill.
Senate panel approves Iraq war funding bill

A number of Republicans have joined Democrats in pushing to beef up the domestic spending in the supplemental measure, recognizing that the must-pass bill remains one of the few pieces of legislation likely [...]

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CCAGW Statement Submitted for the Record before the House Armed Services Committee
Committee Mark-Up of H.R. 5658, The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009
May 14, 2008
According to the May 2 Congressional Quarterly, some members of the House Armed Services Committee are considering challenging the Air Force’s $35 billion contract award to Northrop Grumman for its [...]

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The Hill newspaper reports that the infamous $23 million NDIC earmark, over which 2007 Porker of the Year winner John Murtha threw a temper tantrum and threatened a colleague last year, was removed from this year’s intelligence bill:
Dems, GOP together nix Murtha earmark
Democrats and Republicans joined together to strip a pet project of Rep. John [...]

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It’s that time of the year again - time to load up the “Emergency” War Supplemental.  The hijinx are in full swing with billions of dollars being diverted from a bill that is supposed to go to the troops in the battlefield:
Roll Call: Supplemental Roils Congress

Despite pressure from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Speaker [...]

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Read this terrrific op ed in today’s WSJ on our nation’s ridiculous, costly, and increasingly incomprehensible attachment to federally-subsidized food-to-fuel schemes and the havoc they are wreaking across the globe: 
…All it took was a mere global “food crisis.” Last week chief economist Joseph Glauber of the USDA, which has been among Big Ethanol’s best friends in Washington, blamed biofuels [...]

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Wouldn’t you like to take unlimited days off from work while still receiving your full salary?  Maybe you should run for Congress!  You’d also get a free car and a pay raise every year.
“Um, Yes, Senator Reid, Cough Cough, I’m Sick Again”
Here’s one way to tell who is the least elitist, out-of-touch presidential candidate: Which [...]

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How much should it cost to restore salmon to a river?  Try $22 million per salmon under legislation that is moving through Congress. 
The salmon saga began seventy-five years ago, when the state of California decided to divert water from the San Joaquin River and use it for agricultural purposes.  Twenty year ago, a lawsuit was [...]

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Jeff Birnbaum of the Washington Post has gotten to the bottom of the mysterious 6-page pro-earmark memorandum that was the subject of his column on April 29, 2008.  
The author was none other than a lobbyist for a big earmark-seeking firm here in town, W. Roger Gwinn from The Ferguson Group.  Jeff writes:
The six-page document, which has [...]

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Outrageous story from WCBSTV-NY
Watch video
On YOUR Dime: Congressmen Lease Luxury Cars

NEW YORK (CBS) ― You may not realize it, but members of the House of Representatives can lease a car and have it paid for by you — the taxpayer. And it’s not just the car, but gas, registration, insurance … the works.
And [...]

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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 [...]

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

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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 [...]

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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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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 [...]

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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. [...]

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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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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 [...]

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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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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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 Watch video
Read article:
‘Pig book’ puts pet spending in spotlight

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…the census is a $14 billion mess. 
You would think that after 200 plus years the federal government could be counted on to perform one of its few constitutionally mandated jobs without making a hash of it.  In 2000, the government was so ill-prepared Congress had to pass an emergency supplemental bill to fund the decennial headcount.  The build up to the [...]

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Oink! Book Has Congress’ Biggest Porkers
Report Shows Where Billions Of Tax Dollars Are Going: Earmarks
…”You know, when you’re at war, and you know you got a war on two fronts, the first thing you think of is golf, isn’t it?” said Leslie Paige, vice president of the tax watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste. “That’s [...]

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Update: video
Congress Serves Up $17.2 Billion in Pork
From Shrimp to Beer, ‘Pig Book’ Lays Out Congressional Pork-Barrel Spending Projects
This year’s “Pig Book” from the nonprofit Citizens Against Government Waste details some of these congressional earmarks : $7.5 million spent on grape and wine research; $460,000 for research on hops; and $3 million to $72,000 for [...]

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Here’s some more media coverage of the 2008 Pig Book  
CNN coverage of the Pig Book Press Conference.
Video Pig Book on CNN (via YouTube)
Article ‘Pig Book’ names congressional porkers

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Last week, John Stanton from Roll Call had a great article on how a top aide to Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) is using his position to secure earmarks and funding to a town in which he is also an elected local official - which is against House rules.
Illinois Aide Claims Earmarks Credit($)
A top aide to Rep. [...]

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Possible shady dealings for an earmark in Massachusetts, from the Boston Herald: 
He dries (with a little help from his friend)
$1M earmark boon to ex-rep’s home
U.S. Rep. Bill Delahunt has pushed through $1.1 million in federal earmarks for a controversial Cohasset pond clean-up meant to stop flooding in a pricey waterfront neighborhood where his former congressman pal [...]

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More members of Congress agree to a personal one-year earmark moratorium.
Deal, other Ga. Republicans join anti-earmark crusade
More than half of Georgia’s Republicans in the U.S. House have joined an anti-earmark crusade and pledged to give up pet spending requests for their districts.
They say quitting cold turkey will help shake up a free-spending culture in Washington, [...]

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Watch Media Director Leslie K. Paige discuss the failure of the earmark moratorium in the Senate:
Watch Part 1
Then see Part 2

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