Oink, Oink! Congress Pigs Out on Pork Barrel Spending
The latest annual Pig Book, which tallies up the total amount of pork-barrel spending by Congress, came out today. The results: Congress added 11,600 special projects called “earmarks” to bills last year, costing the taxpayers $17,200,000,000.
Among the programs documented by the Pig Book’s publishers, Citizens Against Government Waste:
$211,509 for olive fruit fly research to be performed not in the USA, but in Paris, France.
$1,950,000 for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service … sponsored by none other than Charles B. Rangel.
$98,000 for a walking tour of Boydton, Virginia … a town of 474 covering less than one square mile that can all be seen from one spot.
$148,950 for a Sheep Institute in Montana and $188,000 for a Lobster Institute in Maine. What? No Pig Institute in Washington, DC?
$196,000 to renovate the historic post office in Las Vegas … because what better way is there to spend your time in dull, boring Vegas than marvelling at the Post Office?
The pork continues to flow from Congress despite ethics reforms and earmark reforms instituted by the new Democratic majority. Last year was the second porkiest since 1991, when CAGW first published the Pig Book. The total cost of special projects in those 18 years exceeds $271,000,000.
The top three porkers in Congress are three Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee: Thad Cochran, Ted Stevens, and Richard Shelby.
As for the three remaining candidates in the race for the White House, there are no surprises. Hillary Clinton leads the way with 281 earmarks costing $296,200,000. Barack Obama finds himself in the middle with 53 earmarks costing $97,400,000.
And John McCain? Zero earmarks costing $0.00.
Mr. and Ms. American taxpayer, here’s the message from your representatives in Congress: turn around, bend over, and squeal like a pig.
Who says you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s earmark?
April 4, 2008 at 9:33 am
Talk about making me sick to my stomach. My husband and I have worked hard to provide for our four children. The reward for our hard work includes paying 34K in state and federal taxes for 2007. I guess that is part of being a citizen of the United States, but does this money really need to be spent on preserving a post office and creating a lobster institute? What is Congress smoking to come up with these ideas? Take the problems we have now and work on correcting these. I do not have all of the right answers, but I know that the United States can survive without lobster institutes.
April 4, 2008 at 4:45 pm
To be fair, shouldn’t we include awarding the air force tanker contract to France in the McCain column?
April 13, 2008 at 12:32 pm
I don’t think many Congressmen understand how much their spending effects our lives. Spending an extra $100,000 on a walking tour of BFE, West Virginia doesn’t seem that significant when one is dealing with the billions of dollars involved in our economy; however, we as citizens end up paying for it. I think many of our politicians need a wake-up call. They should spend that $100,000 for a walking tour of inner city D.C., so it can be apparent where that tax revenue needs to go.
April 14, 2008 at 10:22 pm
That is ridiculous that our government would waste 200,000 dollars to pay French scientist to do research a fly that doesn’t affect us. I’m sure that there are hundreds of earmarks just like this one. I would understand if the project helped the local community, and bring some jobs to places that are hurting for jobs. What does it say about McCain, that he didn’t vote for a single project. He must not care about those people whose livelihood depends on these jobs.
April 15, 2008 at 4:04 pm
I agree, it’s completely ridiculous to give $200,000 to research in France when the United States is in tremendous debt. If we’re going to give money away to other countries, we could at least use it to feed the hungry or give medicine to people in Africa, etc. If there is some importance in the research of olive fruit flies i would sure like to know. Why don’t they donate our money to cancer research or to research autism? What is more important than helping others and saving lives? Oh! It must be taking trips and renovating a post offices that so many people care about! Yep, that’s definitely top priority on my list!!
April 24, 2008 at 10:33 am
I would like to see a credible reference for John McCain’s record of not having an earmark.
Need I remind you that McCain’s senate history is public record? Also, McCain has requested money, but since he “does it in the open honest way,” he technically does not consider it as an earmark. This was seen in 2006 when the senator teamed up with fellow Arizona senator Jon Kyl (R) to funnel $10 million toward the University of Arizona for an academic center named after the late Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist.
Lastly, need I remind you of the Keating 5? McCain is taking the common man’s lack of awareness of the consitution for granted. McCain? Ha, more like McOink.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/06/mccain-earmark/
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/18/politics/18earmark.html?_r=1&oref=slogin