Watchdog Group Issues Annual 'Pork' Report - Big Big Forums

Jolie Rouge · 04-06-2006, 11:04 AM

Watchdog Group Issues Annual 'Pork' Report
By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - For all the hand-wringing on Capitol Hill about larding bills with homestate projects, the latest report from a taxpayer group says lawmakers hit a record last year.

Citizens Against Government Waste, in its annual "Pig Book" released Wednesday, details $29 billion of what it calls pork barrel spending.

For the uninitiated, "pork" means homestate and home district projects specially set aside in congressional spending measures, chiefly the 11 annual appropriations bills.

Money for roads and bridges, grants to law enforcement agencies and charity groups, and water projects is well received back home, which in turn feeds lawmakers' appetites for the projects.

Some of these earmarks are more audacious than others. For example, last year there was a "bridge to nowhere," a $223 million project connecting Alaska's Gravina Island — population 50 — to the mainland. That project drew so much ridicule from the media that an irate public successfully demanded that the bridge be shelved.

The anti-pork group has a pretty broad definition of what constitutes pork. Anything not specifically requested by President Bush automatically qualifies. Others prefer the know-it-when-you-see-it test.

Lots of earmarks qualify under either criterion. Consider a $1 million water-free urinal conservation initiative obtained by Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., or a $500,000 grant for the Arctic Winter Games in Alaska, slipped into a Pentagon spending bill by GOP Sen. Ted Stevens.

Even though term limit rules have forced Stevens out as Senate Appropriations Committee chairman, he still runs its defense subcommittee and managed to deliver $325 million to Alaska, according to the group's estimates. That comes to about $490 per man, woman and child in the state.

Just slightly behind — at least on a per capita basis — is Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, who has a peas-in-a-pod relationship with Stevens as the top Democrat on that Appropriations subcommittee. Inouye helped deliver $482 million to Hawaii, or $378 per person.

The nationwide average is $31 in pork per capita. That means larger states such as Georgia, Florida, Texas and Michigan are not getting an equal share compared with smaller states represented by veterans like Stevens, Inouye, Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va. ($132 per capita), or Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss. ($110).

Earmarks have blossomed under GOP control of Congress. Former Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., advocated the practice to help cement GOP majorities.

Now, core GOP voters are restive over the party's record on spending.

The public is angered by scandals such as the bribery conviction of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., who took more than $2.4 million in using his seat on the House Appropriations Committee to obtain earmarks in behalf of defense contractors "The whole country is sick of this," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.

Efforts to overhaul rules governing earmarks are under way in both the House and Senate.

According to statistics kept by the House Appropriations Committee, the amount of money devoted to earmarks in appropriations bills fell over the past year, from $19.8 billion in the 2005 budget year to $17 billion in the current year.

___

On the Net:

Citizens Against Government Waste: http://www.cagw.org

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060406/...RtBHNlYwMxNjk5

"Pork" funds teapot museum, arctic games
By Andy Sullivan
Thu Apr 6, 7:15 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lobbying scandals and a staggering federal budget deficit haven't dampened Congress' appetite for questionable pet projects, as lawmakers will spend a record $29 billion on "pork" this year, a watchdog group said on Wednesday.

At a press conference featuring real pigs, Citizens Against Government Waste highlighted projects it said were especially egregious: $1 million for water-free urinals, $500,000 for a North Carolina teapot museum and $100,000 for a boxing club in Nevada.

Others included $550,000 for the Museum of Glass in Washington state, $250,000 for the National Cattle Congress in Iowa and $500,000 for the Arctic Winter Games in Alaska.

The group's annual report, known as the "Pig Book," covers the fiscal year ending September 30, during which the U.S. government could rack up a deficit of around $400 billion.

Lawmakers seeking to boost their re-election prospects include spending measures for their home districts in the massive spending bills that keep the government running.

Such "earmarks" are often added at the last stages of the legislative process to bypass the normal scrutiny applied to federal spending.

"We're not saying all these projects are bad. We are saying they haven't gone through a legitimate process," said Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), a longtime critic of Congress' free-spending ways.

ALASKANS BENEFIT MOST

The watchdog group said the total number of pork-barrel earmarks in the 2006 budget declined 29 percent to 9,963, but their total cost increased 6 percent to $29 billion.

However, the House Appropriations Committee says spending on these special projects declined to about $17 billion this fiscal year, down $2.8 billion from the previous year.

The group's figures could be higher because it includes as "pork barrel" spending any projects passed by Congress that have not been requested by the president.

The money is not distributed evenly across the country. While Alaska took home $490 per capita in pork spending, lawmakers from Georgia only wrangled $12 per citizen, according to the group's report.

Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens (news, bio, voting record) was for the fifth year in a row responsible for the most amount of pork -- a total of $325 million last year, the group said.

A Stevens spokeswoman declined comment.

Stevens was at the center of a nasty Senate fight last year when some senators publicly ridiculed his "bridge to nowhere" that connected the port town of Ketchikan to a neighboring island populated by 50 people. The $223 million for the quarter-mile (0.5-km) bridge was removed from a spending bill.

Citizens Against Government Waste touts itself as "America's number one taxpayer watchdog." But it accepts corporate contributions, and an offshoot of the group has lobbied on behalf of special interests including the tobacco industry.

(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060406/...RtBHNlYwMxNjk5

but they don't want to spend money to rebuild the Gulf Coast .....

Jolie Rouge · 04-18-2006, 01:22 AM

The Senate's Deadly Sin: Larding Up Emergency Appropriations
by Brian M. Riedl and Alison Acosta Fraser
WebMemo #1038

April 17, 2006

The same Congress that expanded federal government spending by 45 percent since 2001 and enacted the most expensive agriculture, education, Medicare, energy and highway (containing the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere") bills in American history is on the verge adding another budget-busting boondoggle to its fiscal record.

President George W. Bush requested an emergency appropriation of $92 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and another round of hurricane recovery. The House approved the request, but the Senate Appropriations Committee has loaded the measure with $14 billion in new spending, most unrelated to national security or hurricane recovery. Still not satisfied, Senators are now readying floor amendments to add as much as $10 billion more in spending, which would push the price tag to $24 billion above the President’s request.[1] This is tremendously irresponsible considering the state of the budget. Congress has already boosted spending by 45 percent since 2001 to a post-war record of $23,760 per household.[2] On top of that, the Senate started this year by adding $16 billion to the President’s discretionary budget request.[3] This is at a time where the new Medicare prescription drug benefit is projected to cost over $1 trillion through 2016. Entitlement programs’ liabilities, public debt, and other liabilities such as veterans’ and federal employee retirement costs already total $375,000 for every full time worker in America. [4] The Senate’s actions show a clear disregard for this huge fiscal burden Americans already face.

The Senate should reject all additional spending proposals, strip all items not part of the President’s request, and go one step further by identifying offsets to pay for the bill’s new spending. The President should draw a line in the sand by promising to veto any supplemental that is either beyond the scope of his request or above its total level of funding.

The Senate Bill

Additional funding is needed for continuing operations in Iraq, but the Senate’s approach is blatantly irresponsible. First, the Senate bill contains no offsets and makes no trade-offs to fund priorities like Katrina relief. Second, the Senate bill abuses the definition of “emergency” and brazenly capitalizes on the plight of Katrina’s victims and the need to fund war operations to cram in billions of dollars in unrelated spending while evading budget caps established one year ago. Third, the Senate bill piles all manner of unnecessary pork projects on top of an already expensive payload.

As it now stands, the Senate’s supplemental bill would provide $72 billion for the President’s request for the Iraq war, $20 billion to fund fully the President’s request for additional Katrina relief, and $14 billion in new, non-emergency spending across all categories, including:

$4 billion for farm bailouts, which comes on top of the $25 billion that will be spent this year on farm subsidies, even as farm income reaches near-record highs;

$700 million to re-route a rail line several miles away, reportedly to help private developers build casinos nearby its present location;

$1.1 billion for private fisheries;

$2.3 billion to prepare for the avian flu, on top of the $3.8 billion that was appropriated in December 2005;

$594 million for highway projects unrelated to the Gulf Coast—some as far away as Hawaii;

$20 million for AmeriCorps; and

156 pork projects diverted from last year’s appropriations bills, including grants for air shows in Las Vegas, arts promotion in the Bronx, and a courthouse in West Virginia.

Source: “Making Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for the Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2006, and For Other Purposes,” Senate Committee Report 109-230, April 5, 2006.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/wm1038.cfm

Jolie Rouge · 03-25-2007, 12:30 AM

Pork & the war spending bill:
Dogging the Blue Dogs...and serving up defeat
By Michelle Malkin · March 23, 2007 01:30 PM

http://michellemalkin.com/

Bush vows veto.

Bill passes, 218-212 in the House.

Rep. Mike Pence quips: http://www.mikepence.house.gov/News/...cumentID=61260

Quote:

"Here are some examples of what the Democrats consider 'urgent' needs that require 'prompt action: '

-- $25 million for payments to spinach producers
-- $120 million to the shrimp industry
-- $74 million for peanut storage
-- $5 million for shellfish, oyster and clam producers

"Spinach, shrimp, peanuts and shellfish? That's not a war funding bill, that's the salad bar at Denny's."

***

The Club for Growth puts the heat on freshmen Blue Dog Democrats:
http://www.clubforgrowth.org/2007/03...nding_bill.php

* Nancy Boyda (KS-2): Nancy Boyda recently came out in support of the pork-stuffed Iraq supplemental bill, but her campaign website told a different story. Running against Republican Jim Ryun, she wrote “Congress must never waste a single taxpayer dime on needless spending...Wasteful spending has increased exponentially in recent years.” Does Nancy Boyda think $75 million for peanut storage is not a waste of taxpayer dollars?

* Heath Schuler (NC-11): In his race to unseat Republican Representative Charles Taylor, the former football player attacked the incumbent Republican for his “irresponsible” earmarks (Wall Street Journal, 10/11/06) and said that “the people of North Carolina deserve better” (US Fed News Service, 10/11/06). We hope he remembers those words when it comes time to vote on the Iraq spending bill.

* Nick Lampson (TX-22): Nick Lampson campaigned on fiscal responsibility and took a harsh stand against congressional pork on his campaign website: “We have terrible waste in our government that can be addressed right now. We shouldn't be spending on pork projects like bridges to nowhere in Alaska and a tea pot museum in North Carolina. We must set priorities and stick to them.” By that standard, Rep. Lampson should cast a “no” vote on the Iraq war spending bill.

* Tim Mahoney (FL-22): According to his campaign website, Rep. Tim Mahoney campaigned on wide-sweeping ethics reform that included a platform to “Cut the Pork.” Interestingly, the supplemental bill includes money for citrus growers in Rep. Mahoney’s district. Could that possibly have something to do with Tim Mahoney’s support for the Iraq supplemental bill?

* Harry Mitchell (AZ-5): Rep. Mitchell beat the fiscal responsibility drum on his campaign website: “Unfortunately, fiscal irresponsibility and pork-barrel spending has Washington swimming in red ink . . . In Congress, I will promote fiscal policy that is both responsible and accountable, just as I did at the local level.” Now that his own Democratic leadership is the one doing the drowning, will Rep. Mitchell have the courage to just say no?

Meanwhile, Citizens Against Government Waste puts pressure on Congress to keep the pork out of the emergency spending bill. Below is a list of the most egregious and irrelevant special-interest goodies in the Senate supplemental: http://councilfor.cagw.org/site/Page...edge_IssuePage

Quote:

$1.5 billion to the Army Corps of Engineers for recovery along the coast, including funding for Hawaii for an April 2006 flood;

$850 million for Department of Homeland Security grants ($625M for rail/transit grants, $190M for port security grants, and $35M for urban area security grants);

$660 million for the procurement of an explosives detection system for the Transportation Security Administration;

$640 million for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program;

$425 million for education grants for rural areas;

$388.9 million for a backlog of Department of Transportation projects;

$165.9 million (including $60.4 million for salmon fisheries in the Klamath Basin region) for fisheries disaster relief;

$75 million for salaries and expenses for the Farm Service Agency;

$48 million in disaster construction money for NASA;

$25 million for grants through the Safe and Drug Free Schools program;

$25 million for asbestos abatement at the Capitol Power Plant;

$24 million to sugar beet producers;

$22.8 million for geothermal research and development;

$20 million for reimbursements to Nevada for “insect damage;”

$12 million for Forest Service money requested by the president in the non-emergency FY2008 budget

$3.5 million for guided tours of the Capitol;

$3 million for sugar cane; and

Allows the transfer of funds from holiday ornament sales in the Senate gift shop.

And in the House version:

Quote:

$500 million for emergency wildfires suppression; the Forest Service currently has $831 million for this purpose;

$400 million for rural schools;

$283 million for the Milk Income Loss Contract program;

$120 million to compensate for the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the shrimp and menhaden fishing industries;

$100 million for citrus assistance;

$74 million for peanut storage costs;

$60.4 million for salmon fisheries in the Klamath River region in California and Oregon;

$50 million for asbestos mitigation at the U.S. Capitol Plant;

$48 million in salaries and expenses for the Farm Service Agency;

$35 million for NASA risk mitigation projects in Gulf Coast;

$25 million for spinach growers;

$25 million for livestock;

$20 million for Emergency Conservation Program for farmland damaged by freezing temperatures;

$16 million for security upgrades to House of Representatives office buildings;

$10 million for the International Boundary and Water Commission for the Rio Grande Flood Control System Rehabilitation project;

$6.4 million for House of Representative’s Salaries and Expenses Account for business continuity and disaster recovery expenses;

$5 million for losses suffered by aquaculture businesses including breeding, rearing, or transporting live fish as a result of viral hemorrhagic septicemia;

$4 million for the Office of Women’s Health at the Food and Drug Administration; and

A minimum wage increase, which is the subject of separate legislation.

Instapundit and Porkbusters have more.
http://instapundit.com/archives2/003521.php
http://porkbusters.org/

John Boehner weighs in at The Examiner.
http://www.examiner.com/a-632613%7ER..._spending.html

The Washington Post editorializes:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...032201883.html

Quote:

The Democrats claim to have a mandate from voters to reverse the Bush administration's policy in Iraq. Yet the leadership is ready to piece together the votes necessary to force a fateful turn in the war by using tactics usually dedicated to highway bills or the Army Corps of Engineers budget.

The Dems have a "pep rally:" http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070323/...UfrKQaXJ6s0NUE

Quote:

House Democrats voiced confidence Friday that they had enough support to approve Congress' boldest challenge yet to President Bush's Iraq policy, a bill ordering combat troops to leave the country before the fall of 2008.

After days of lobbying by party leaders, chances of passage increased after many liberal opponents of the bill — who had said that it did not go far enough to end the war immediately — announced they would not stand in its way.

The $124 billion bill would finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but require combat troops to return home before September 2008, possibly sooner, if the Iraqi government does not meet certain requirements.

"Today, we are demanding accountability," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

Confident they had the votes to win, Democrats celebrated in a closed-door meeting in advance of the debate. Some described it as resembling a pep rally.

"I would call it the coming together of conscience, conviction and caucus," said Rep. John Larson, D-Conn.

Power Line spotlights Pork and Defeat. http://powerlineblog.com/archives/017124.php

John Hinderaker writes: "If the Democrats were willing to fight as hard for victory as they are fighting for defeat, the country would be much better off."

nightrider127 · 03-26-2007, 11:09 PM

You know what? Those members of Congress, regardless of their party affliation need to have their rear ends kicked, both literally and figuratively (sp). They spend our hard earned tax money on some of the most stupid causes. What I really think they ought to be forced to do is go before a committee of the most tight fisted people in the country and have to plead their case for non emergent things. And I don't mean saying "I wont get reelected if I don't get this for the folks back home" and asking that an emergency be declared either.

Everyday, I get more and more reasons to vote for Spud, and not just for president either..

Jolie Rouge · 03-28-2007, 12:03 AM

Oinkoinkoinkoinkoink...bokbokbokbok

N.Z. Bear at The Victory Caucus has created a handy index to the key provisions in the Dems' emergency supplemental bill so you can see all the pork for yourselves. http://victorycaucus.com/supplemental_senate.php

Jolie Rouge · 07-17-2007, 02:26 PM

Sham Earmark Reform
By Robert D. Novak

WASHINGTON - As bipartisan majorities overwhelmed all attempts to eliminate pork barrel earmarks during a recent House session, one effort actually passed -- comfortably, though unnoticed by the public. The reason that for the first time House members voted to deprive a colleague of pork for his district is the identity of that colleague: Rep. Patrick McHenry, a second-term Republican from Cherryville in the western Piedmont of North Carolina, who at age 31 is the youngest member of the House.

McHenry's $129,000 earmark would promote tourism in economically distressed Mitchell County. The new Democratic majority's leadership, which routinely supports earmarks, cracked the whip against this one in the apparent spirit of political revenge. A conservative firebrand, McHenry had humiliated the Democratic majority by leading GOP parliamentary maneuvers that immobilized the House to force transparency of earmarks previously hidden by both parties.

But the House the last week of June showed that the celebrated transparency is a sham. Each newly transparent earmark brought to a floor vote lost by a huge margin. In traditional congressional log-rolling, one earmarker protects another. There is no political risk because these votes are publicly ignored. Members insisting on their pork reflect bipartisan congressional nonchalance about ballooning federal spending. Demonstrating how cynical are their pretensions toward earmark reform, Democrats also got even with the bumptious McHenry.

Considering the Interior Appropriations bill June 26, the House kept alive 11 egregious earmarks. Rep. John Murtha, king of Democratic earmarkers, kept $1.2 million for the Southwestern Pennsylvania Heritage Preservation Commission in Hollidaysburg, Pa. (by a 343 to 86 vote), and $150,000 for W.A. Young & Sons Foundry in Greene County, Pa. (328 to 104). The House voted 323 to 104 to retain $140,000 for the Wetzel County, W. Va., courthouse sponsored by Democratic Rep. Allan Mollohan, whose earmarks have provoked an FBI investigation.

Moving on to Financial Services Appropriations June 28, the House voted 335 to 87 to continue Murtha's raid on the Treasury: $231,000 for the Grace Johnstown (Pa.) Area Regional Industries Incubator. By 325 to 101, the members refused to remove a $231,000 Mollohan earmark for the West Virginia University Research Corp. to renovate a "small business incubator." As usual, dauntless Republican Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona led the way in targeting colleagues' earmarks. He did not exempt Republican pork fanciers -- including 15-term California Rep. Jerry Lewis, ranking minority member of the Appropriations Committee, whose past earmarking raised ethical questions.

Flake opposed Lewis's $500,000 earmark for the Barracks Row Main Street project in Southeast Washington, D.C. Flake noted on the House floor that millions in federal funds have flowed into that neighborhood since 1999, including a $750,000 earmark last year. "I certainly hope," said Flake, "that we are not approving a redevelopment earmark today to redevelop last year's redevelopment earmark." Such comments led Republican leaders last year to purge Flake from the House Judiciary Committee. A smiling, sarcastic Lewis asked Flake: "Have you ever attended the Silent March that takes place on Friday evenings at the Marine barracks [on Barracks Row]?"
"I have not," Flake replied.
"You have not. I would suggest to the gentleman that probably one of the most important things that a Member of Congress should do is to go to the Marine barracks."

Lewis's earmark was retained, 361 to 60.

That day I asked Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, Flake's fellow Republican reformer, whether he was discouraged. "Oh, no," he said. "There are three of us now [including second-term Republican Rep. John Campbell of California],
and now we only get beat three-to-one." Little did Hensarling know that the House was about to eliminate one earmark.

Flake's earmark list included McHenry's development grant for Mitchell County, which he said "is simply not a good use of federal dollars." Before the vote, Flake privately reassured McHenry that his earmark was certain to be saved by the pork-hungry House. "Don't be too sure," McHenry replied. Indeed, with Democratic leaders eager to punish McHenry, his earmark was eliminated 249 to 174.

An embarrassed McHenry told me that this might well be his last earmark. That does signal a little progress, unintentionally resulting from hypocritical pretensions of reform by the new Democratic majority.

Jolie Rouge · 09-08-2008, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jolie Rouge

Watchdog Group Issues Annual 'Pork' Report
By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer
---
Some of these earmarks are more audacious than others. For example, last year there was a "bridge to nowhere," a $223 million project connecting Alaska's Gravina Island — population 50 — to the mainland. That project drew so much ridicule from the media that an irate public successfully demanded that the bridge be shelved.

The anti-pork group has a pretty broad definition of what constitutes pork. Anything not specifically requested by President Bush automatically qualifies. Others prefer the know-it-when-you-see-it test.

Lots of earmarks qualify under either criterion. Consider a $1 million water-free urinal conservation initiative obtained by Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., or a $500,000 grant for the Arctic Winter Games in Alaska, slipped into a Pentagon spending bill by GOP Sen. Ted Stevens.

Even though term limit rules have forced Stevens out as Senate Appropriations Committee chairman, he still runs its defense subcommittee and managed to deliver $325 million to Alaska, according to the group's estimates. That comes to about $490 per man, woman and child in the state.

Just slightly behind — at least on a per capita basis — is Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, who has a peas-in-a-pod relationship with Stevens as the top Democrat on that Appropriations subcommittee. Inouye helped deliver $482 million to Hawaii, or $378 per person.

So ... when i brought this issue up years ago ... nobody really cared...
Now ....

... it's news ....

FACT CHECK : Palin and the Bridge to Nowhere
2 hours, 8 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - A new ad from John McCain's presidential campaign contends his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, "stopped the Bridge to Nowhere." In fact, Palin was for the infamous bridge before she was against it

THE SPIN: Called "Original Mavericks," the ad asserts the Republican senator has fought pork-barrel spending, the drug industry and fellow Republicans, reforming Washington in the process, and credits Palin with similarly changing Alaska by taking on the oil industry, challenging her own party and ditching the bridge project that became a national symbol of wasteful spending.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton came back with fighting words. "Despite being discredited over and over again by numerous news organizations, the McCain campaign continues to repeat the lie that Sarah Palin stopped the Bridge to Nowhere," he said.

Burton said McCain would merely carry on supporting President Bush's economic, health, education, energy and foreign policies, and that means "anything but change."

THE FACTS: Palin did abandon plans to build the nearly $400 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport. But she made her decision after the project had become an embarrassment to the state, after federal dollars for the project were pulled back and diverted to other uses in Alaska, and after she had appeared to support the bridge during her campaign for governor.

McCain and Palin together have told a broader story about the bridge that is misleading. She is portrayed as a crusader for the thrifty use of tax dollars who turned down an offer from Washington to build an expensive bridge of little value to the state.

"I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere," she said in her convention speech last week.

That's not what she told Alaskans when she announced a year ago that she was ordering state transportation officials to ditch the project. Her explanation then was that it would be fruitless to try to persuade Congress to come up with the money.

"It's clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island," Palin said then.

Palin indicated during her 2006 campaign for governor that she supported the bridge, but was wishy-washy about it. She told local officials that money appropriated for the bridge "should remain available for a link, an access process as we continue to evaluate the scope and just how best to just get this done."

She vowed to defend Southeast Alaska "when proposals are on the table like the bridge and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that's so negative" — something that McCain was busy doing at the time, as a fierce critic of the bridge.

Even so, she called the bridge design "grandiose" during her campaign and said something more modest might be appropriate.

Palin's reputation for standing up to entrenched interests in Alaska is genuine. Her self-description as a leader who "championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress" is harder to square with the facts.

The governor has cut back on pork-barrel project requests, but in her two years in office, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. And as mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million.

By Calvin Woodward.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080908/...hWn1xC3Nn5R9AF

See also : The cost of doing nothing about exploding federal entitlements?

jbbarn · 09-08-2008, 07:09 PM

"Earmarks have blossomed under GOP control of Congress. Former Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., advocated the practice to help cement GOP majorities."

Surely they're not sayng that porkbarrel spending began wth Newt Gingrich!
Anyway,it may be time to FIRE their a**es! That's what any boss would do if an employee was caught stealing on the job!