CAN YOU SAY "CONFLICT OF INTEREST?"

I knew you could!  


Here is the latest "Porker of the Month" from 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.

Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky) Washington Office: Phone: 202-225-4601 Fax: 202-225-0940

CAGW Names Rep. Hal Rogers August Porker of the Month 

(Washington, D.C.) - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) August Porker of the Month for sponsoring legislation that could give federal funding to his daughter’s nonprofit organization, which promotes overseas wildlife protection for cheetahs.

According to a July 26, 2010 article in the Lexington Herald-Leader, “U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Somerset, is sponsoring a bill to give $5 million a year to conservation groups that work overseas on behalf of endangered ‘great cats and rare canids,’ such as cheetahs, lions and Ethiopian wolves.  One group interested in applying, should Rogers’ bill become law, is the Namibia-based Cheetah Conservation Fund.  Its grants administrator, Allison Rogers, is the congressman’s daughter.”

“Americans are being forced to tighten their belts while the economy is limping along, but that doesn’t deter porkers in Congress, like Rep. Rogers, who think nothing of using the hard-earned tax dollars of the U.S. Treasury to subsidize family members,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.  “Members of Congress should go out of their way to ensure that their actions in Congress never appear to be nepotistic.  Rep. Rogers and members like him continue to behave as though the U.S. Treasury is their own personal piggy bank.” 

Rep. Rogers has claimed there is no conflict of interest.  Unfortunately, the bill that Rep. Rogers’ is sponsoring is narrow enough in scope that his support seems more than coincidental. 

“Taxpayers are smarter than members of Congress think,” continued Schatz.  “They can spot a ‘cheetah’ from a mile away.”

CAGW’s Porker of the Month can also be viewed on video which is co-produced with reason.tv, the video website of Reason Magazine.  CAGW’s Porker of the Month is available on both CAGW’s homepage and atreason.tv. 

For promoting nepotism by attempting to steer taxpayer money to his daughter’s nonprofit, CAGW names Rep. Hal Rogers its August 2010 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.  

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For more information, contact:          Leslie K. Paige
                                                      202-467-5334
                                                      media@cagw.org

He says there's no conflict of interest.  Just sheer coincidence that his daughter's organization just so happens to be in line to benefit, I'm sure. Just sheer coincidence Representative Rogers started sponsoring this bill in 2007 which just so happens to be the year his daughter became the grants administrator of the Namibia based Cheetah Conservation Fund.

 Ironically, Representative Rogers represents one of the poorest Congressional districts in the nation. 

PORKER OF THE MONTH

It's been awhile since I have announced CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE's PORKER OF THE MONTH. I am going to try to keep a closer eye out each month and post it to try to get the word out about Washington's waste of our hard earned tax dollars.

The honor for July 2009 goes to REPRESENTATIVE RUSS CARNAHAN, D-Missouri. 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.

Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.) Phone: 202-225-2671 Fax: 202-225-7452

Rep. Russ Carnahan is CAGW’s July Porker of the Month Washington, D.C. - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.) its July Porker of the Month. Rep. Carnahan, who was caught on videotape by a vigilant citizen blogger at a town hall meeting held at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park, who posted the remarks on hiswebsite and on YouTube, grossly misrepresented the costs associated with the controversial healthcare reforms bills currently under consideration in Congress. His statements were so patently false that when members of the audience reacted with disbelief and loud guffaws, he instantly became the public face of those in Washington, D.C. who are willing to blurt out anything they think will mask the reality of this heinous reform plan to try to slip it by taxpayers. Rep. Carnahan first stated that “The overall cost of the package has been estimated at about $1 trillion over ten years. About half of that comes from savings and efficiencies in the system,” a statement which drew derisive chuckles from a skeptical audience. He then compounded his verbal misery by asserting that “The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) most recently came out and analyzed the current plan and said that it was not only debt neutral, which has been one of the important factors of the President and congressional leaders, but also that over 10 years it would create a $6 billion surplus,” a statement which was both demonstrably false and elicited loud guffaws. In fact, on June 15, a month before these remarks, CBO estimated that the Kennedy-Dodd bill would increase the deficit by $1 trillion over 10 years. On July 16, four days before Rep. Carnahan’s comments, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf told the Senate Budget Committee that every healthcare reform bill would increase costs, not reduce them. Rep. Carnahan’s behavior seems to be part of a pattern. Democrats in the House seem to be willing to say anything to misdirect taxpayers. For example, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the legislation’s head cheerleader, said during the week of July 10 that “all of the cost of the healthcare reform bill can come from squeezing more savings out of the system;” soon thereafter she came out in favor of a $544 billion tax increase to finance healthcare reform. The President has said that he would only support a bill that is deficit neutral, and that reforms should mirror “what members of Congress are getting through the federal employee plan.” Yet he seems to be pushing for a bill that would not meet any of those criteria. For his memorable walk-on cameo appearance in this political Comedy of Errors and his significant contribution to the unbridled bloviation emanating from Washington, most of which has been long on spin and short on facts, Rep. Russ Carnahan is CAGW’s July 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.