2006 Pig Book

alex

Well-Known Member
The guilty pleas of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham illustrate how pork-barrel projects, whether used as currency for re-election or as political favors to well-connected individuals or businesses, can corrupt the political process. The historic lack of restraint in the appropriations process has helped create a projected $371 billion budget deficit in fiscal 2006 and a national debt of $8.5 trillion. Whether the lobbying scandal and the outrage of taxpayers over “bridges to nowhere” will force Congress to cut the pork remains to be seen.

The 2006 Congressional Pig Book is the latest installment of Citizens Against Government Waste’s (CAGW) 16-year exposé of pork-barrel spending. This year’s list includes: $13,500,000 for the International Fund for Ireland, which helped finance the World Toilet Summit; $6,435,000 for wood utilization research; $1,000,000 for the Waterfree Urinal Conservation Initiative; and $500,000 for the Sparta Teapot Museum in Sparta, N.C.

This year, there was good news and bad news. For fiscal 2006, appropriators stuffed 9,963 projects into the 11 appropriations bills, a 29 percent decrease over last year’s total of 13,997. Despite the reduction in the number of earmarks, Congress porked out at record dollar levels with $29 billion in pork for 2006, or 6.2 percent more than last year’s total of $27.3 billion. In fact, the total cost of pork has increased by 29 percent since fiscal 2003. Total pork identified by CAGW since 1991 adds up to $241 billion.

Even though Alaska led the nation with $489 per capita ($325 million), it was less than half of Alaska’s 2005 per capita number of $985. The runners up in 2006 were Hawaii with $378 per capita ($482 million) and the District of Columbia with $182 per capita ($100 million). Alaska’s drop can be attributed to Sen. Ted Stevens’ (R-Alaska) descent from the throne as Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman.

In addition to the lobbying scandal, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have magnified the need for prioritizing federal spending. If the federal government is to pay for the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast, it should do so without going further in debt.

By passing pork-laden appropriations bills and by not vetoing a single spending bill, Congress and the President of the United States have respectively failed the American taxpayer. While the ramifications of these failures may not be completely visible today, they surely will be when future generations will be strangled with increasing debt.

The 375 projects, totaling $3.4 billion, in this year’s Congressional Pig Book Summary symbolize the most egregious and blatant examples of pork. As in previous years, all of the items in the Congressional Pig Book Summary meet at least one of CAGW’s seven criteria, but most satisfy at least two:

* Requested by only one chamber of Congress;
* Not specifically authorized;
* Not competitively awarded;
* Not requested by the President;
* Greatly exceeds the President’s budget request or the previous year’s funding;
* Not the subject of congressional hearings; or
* Serves only a local or special interest.



This one seems to take the cake......

$500,000 for construction of the Sparta Teapot Museum in Sparta, North Carolina. Supporters of the project claim that the museum “will expose its visitors to an unexpected art form the teapot.” State Representative Jim Harrell III (D-Alleghany) hopes the public funding will increase private donations and the resulting tourism will boost the local economy. State Senator Don East (R-Alleghany) noted that if lawmakers continued to pass out pork, he wanted “poor little Alleghany County” to get some as well. However, Senator East is not convinced that the museum is going to bring an influx of tourists to the area. In an interview with the Carolina Journal , East admitted, “It’s a crapshoot whether we will ever realize a lot out of tourism. Hopefully we will.” Taxpayers should be steamed that their money is being gambled on this project.


This one got the "Flushing our money down the toilet" award

$1,000,000 for the Waterfree Urinal Conservation Initiative added by Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-Mich.). According to a October 20, 2005 CongressDaily article, Rep. Ehlers wrote a letter to House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman C.W. (Bill) Young (R-Fla.) requesting this earmark.


2006 Pig Book
 

Gonz

molṑn labé
Staff member
The people send money to Washington & if the Senators (where most of the pork comes from) can't show they're sending as much as possible back to their home state, the people wonder where the money is going. Or some such nonsense.
 

SouthernN'Proud

Southern Discomfort
Don't you live around NashVegas? Wanna tell me how many tourist traps there are there that nobody in their right mind would waste time in? You think Opryland/Gaylord never got a nickel on a tax break?
 

alex

Well-Known Member
No, I don't live in NashVegas....but I've been there many a time and I kept my money in my pocket.
 

alex

Well-Known Member
I live near Huntsville. I used to work in Nashville...well, actually Lavergne.....but nobody has ever heard of Lavergne so I usually just say Nashville.
 

HomeLAN

New Member
Gonz said:
The people send money to Washington & if the Senators (where most of the pork comes from) can't show they're sending as much as possible back to their home state, the people wonder where the money is going. Or some such nonsense.

I live in Georgia. You know, the bottom on the list as far as how much came back? Many of us know where the money went, and it pisses us off. Outside our own 13 folks in congress, though, we can't do too much to fix it.

If only some other folks would figure it the fuck out, maybe this book would become unnecessary.
 

Professur

Well-Known Member
SouthernN'Proud said:
So how would you propose we pay for the Teapot Museum? Hmm? What's a nation without a Teapot Museum?


Hey. You fuckers started a war and stole our colonies over friggin' tea. That's how important it is.
 

chcr

Too cute for words
Professur said:
Hey. You fuckers started a war and stole our colonies over friggin' tea. That's how important it is.
No, us fuckers started a war over smuggling tea vs. paying taxes on it. The irony of this is that the most vociferous, breast beating Americans are exactly the kind of people who would have said back then, "Shut up and pay your taxes like a good little Tory!" :lol:
 

Gato_Solo

Out-freaking-standing OTC member
$1,000,000 for the Waterfree Urinal Conservation Initiative added by Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-Mich.). According to a October 20, 2005 CongressDaily article, Rep. Ehlers wrote a letter to House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman C.W. (Bill) Young (R-Fla.) requesting this earmark.

Those waterless urinals save over 400,000 gallons of water every year, if used in high traffic areas. Problem is, that the money they save the DoD in water is off-set by the increased maintenance those pieces of crap require. We've got them at home, and, any given day, half are wrapped in plastic with 'do not use' signs...
 
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