PORKER OF THE MONTH

I haven't published these in a while, so here is April's Porker of the Month from the CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE.  The award went to Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina).  Here's the article:

CAGW Names Senator Lindsey Graham Porker of the Month 

Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) named Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) its April 2011 Porker of the Month for threatening to bring the Senate to a standstill over a $40,000 earmark for a federal study on deepening the port of Charleston.  The study would investigate the effectiveness of deepening the port from 47 feet to 50 feet, an improvement that Sen. Graham claims will allow it to accommodate the types of ships that will “dominate shipping lanes” in the future.  The earmark began as a $400,000 request that was rejected by the Senate Appropriations Committee in October, 2010.  There was also no money for the project in the President’s fiscal year (FY) 2012 budget.  Sen. Graham reduced his request to $40,000, but even that amount was not included in Congress’s FY 2011Continuing Resolution. 
On April 11, 2011, Sen. Graham threw a fit over the failure to fund the project, telling reporters that he would “tie the Senate in knots” until the port study money was approved.  On April 12, he tweeted, “No nominations go forward in Senate until we address CHS port.”  Unfortunately, the tantrum paid off.  Despite Congress’s ongoing earmark moratorium, on April 15 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pledged on the Senate floor that he would find funding for the study before the end of FY 2011.  Sen. Reid stated that the money would “not be limited to South Carolina,” since Charleston is just one of 12 eligible recipient cities, but Sen. Graham was satisfied enough to stop his protest, indicating that he knows full well where the cash will land. The deepening of Charleston’s port is expected to cost $350 million. 

The senator from South Carolina is no stranger to pork-barrel spending.  His earmark requests totaled $78.9 million in FY 2010 and $126 million in FY 2009.  Sen. Graham has claimed through his website that “260,800 jobs, $11.8 billion in wages, and $1.5 billion in state and local taxes” hinge on the Port of Charleston’s improvements.     

“This project and the study it requires both reek of pork,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.  “If the benefits to South Carolina even approach the numbers cited by Sen. Graham, private backers and the state government should be chomping at the bit to fund it themselves.  Instead, taxpayers everywhere will pay for a study, the results of which are a foregone conclusion – it will prove the importance of upgrading the port and cost taxpayers much more money. 

“If each of the 260,800 people whose jobs supposedly depend on the port deepening were to contribute just 19 cents apiece, the study would be funded in full.  There is absolutely no reason that taxpayers in places like Omaha or Denver should be forced to finance Charleston’s port,” concluded Schatz.

For insisting that federal taxpayers deep-six their dollars into a project that should be funded by the state and the private sector, CAGW names Sen. Lindsey Graham its April 2011 Porker of the Month.

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.  Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.  


Deepening a port by three feet for $350,000,000.00. $40,000 of taxpayer dollars just for the study.  That's a total of $130,000,000 per foot. What a bargain.  And these people are constantly telling us the Federal government is broke (which it is beyond broke), threaten to shut down the government, and all of the other political hoopla we hear everyday.  This is just a prime example that none of them in Washington really truly represent anyone's interests other than their own.

THE "CORNHUSKER KICKBACK" NAMED JANUARY "PORKER OF THE MONTH"

Here is the latest Porker of the Month award from the CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE.

Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) Washington Office: Phone: 202-224-6551 Fax: 202-228-0012

Sen. Ben Nelson is CAGW’s January Porker of the Month

(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) its January Porker of the Month. Sen. Nelson furnished the pivotal 60th vote for cloture on December 19, 2009, allowing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) healthcare bill to come to the Senate floor for final passage. Nelson held out until he was able to parlay his vote to secure, among other perks, a permanent exemption for Nebraska to the Medicaid expansion in the Reid bill, saving the state between $59 million and $281 million. The deal has been dubbed the “Cornhusker Kickback.” The federal government will cover most of the states’ additional Medicaid expenses until 2017. According to The Heritage Foundation, the cost of benefits and administration for the expanded program will cost the states between $32.2 billion and $60 billion through 2019.

In the immediate aftermath of the Cornhusker Kickback, Sen. Nelson stated that he had been under pressure from Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman (R) to negotiate the deal. However, Gov. Heineman denied that assertion, saying that “Under no circumstances did I have anything to do with Senator Nelson’s compromise…The responsibility for this special deal lies solely on the shoulders of Senator Ben Nelson.” The senator then scrambled to send a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) asking that the language be removed, followed closely by a claim that the carve-out was always meant as a “placeholder” so that, eventually, all the states could get the federal government to cover their Medicaid costs, a very expensive proposition. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) remarked in a December 19, 2009 Politico article that Nelson may have done the “‘other 99 senators a favor because the federal government is paying for the entire Medicaid expansion through 2017 for every state…When you look at it, I thought well, God, good, it is going to be the impetus for all the states to stay at 100 percent [after 2017]. So he might have done all of us a favor.’”

In the days following the deal, public opinion of Sen. Nelson plummeted. The January 6, 2010 Fremont Tribune reported that Sen. Nelson told reporters that “…it was a mistake to take healthcare on as opposed to continuing to spend the time on the economy.” Sen. Nelson has continued to frantically shore up public opinion among his constituents, to little avail. A January 17, 2010 Omaha World Herald survey of 500 registered voters reported showed that Nelson’s job approval rating has dropped to 42 percent and his disapproval rating was 48 percent. In April 2006, Nelson had an approval rating of 73 percent, the highest for any senator. His colleague, Mike Johanns (R-Neb.), who voted against the Reid bill, has a 63 percent job-approval rating.

For his Cornhusker Kickback boondoggle, classless congressional CYA behavior, and opening the door to a congressional stampede to try to fully federalize one of the most wasteful government-run healthcare entitlement programs ever conceived, Sen. Ben Nelson wins the dubious title of CAGW’s January Porker of the Month.

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.

This is another one that needs to go come election time, and judging from his numbers, he'll go out the door with many other Democrats. Senator Nelson is just one blatant example of the Washington system. Deals like this go on all the time. Votes are traded and sold on the House & Senate floors like stocks at the New York Stock Exchange. Who pays for it? You guessed it - WE DO.

"PORKER OF THE MONTH!"

Now that the elections are over, and the transition from AOL to here is over too, I can return to posting other matters. This is one of my favorite subjects, waste in government spending. I've always found it kind of funny that all of the Congressmen and Congresswomen engage in wasteful spending and earmarks, yet at election time they all pledge to fight it. Why not fix during the years in office to start with??

Anyway, the CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE awarded the "Porker of the Month" award to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. Here's the article:

Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.

CAGW Names FCC Chairman Kevin Martin October Porker of the Month

Washington, D.C. - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin its October Porker of the Month for using FCC funds to sponsor a NASCAR driver from his home state.

The FCC will pay $355,000 to sponsor David Gilliland’s number 38 car, owned by Yates Racing, for three races, in order to raise awareness about the upcoming switch to digital television (DTV) in February. Even though the commission has inundated networks with paid announcements for months, Martin considered it necessary to use additional taxpayer dollars to pay for the car and driver to bear slogans such as “Is Your TV ready for Digital?” The sponsorship has gotten off to a rocky start, as Gilliland’s car crashed into the wall on October 19 the first race with the new ad.

While spreading public awareness over the transition from analog to digital broadcasting is important, the National Association of Broadcasters has stated that the public is already largely aware of the switch. “This doesn't seem like the most efficient use of resources,” admitted FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. While NASCAR is the biggest spectator sport in the country, it seems absurd to spend taxpayer money for three races only four months before the switch, following months of alternative advertising. Chairman Martin not only chose to misuse government funds, but did so without consulting all of the FCC commissioners.

Not only does this expenditure show poor judgment, the underlying motivation for the contract has also raised eyebrows. Martin is generally expected to be replaced as FCC Chairman by the next president, after which he may attempt to launch a political career in his home state of North Carolina. Indeed, some have suggested that Martin’s decision to move forward with this sponsorship is linked to his political future in the state. Gilliland is based in North Carolina, while NASCAR maintains offices in four North Carolina cities. Additionally, Martin chose Wilmington, North Carolina as the test site for the switch to DTV. Considering Martin’s ability to sequester taxpayer money for his prospective constituents, he is well on his way to becoming a successful legislative porker.

For using taxpayer funds on an unnecessary project, diverting focus from more important telecommunications concerns, recklessly spending without consulting with his peers, and attempting to use his influence to shore up his own political prospects, CAGW names FCC Chairman Kevin Martin its October 2008 Porker of the Month.

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.

As a state government employee myself, if I were to do anything even remotely approaching this, I would be suspended pending an investigation, prosecuted, and given "three hots and a cot" for a few years to meditate on it. But, in Washington, the beat goes on . . .