Where is your tax money going?

The ink was barely dry on the “New Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007” when House and Senate leaders began looking for ways to circumvent or obstruct its earmark disclosure rules. CCAGW’s Earmark Reform Pledge aims to commit lawmakers to providing taxpayers with greater transparency and accountability for earmarks.

By signing the pledge, members of Congress agree to 10 provisions, including that they will:

• fully disclose all earmarked funding or targeted tax benefit requests on their congressional websites;
• not request any earmarked funding or targeted tax benefit provision that does not serve a federal interest and/or have a federal nexus;
• not request any earmarked funding or targeted tax benefit provision that would be directed toward a specific private entity that was not requested by an agency; and,
• support legislation that would end the linkage between campaign contributions and earmarks.

Senate Earmark Pledge
House Earmark Pledge

From 1995 to 2005, the number of appropriations earmarks grew nearly tenfold, from 1,439 to 13,997. It’s no coincidence that the proliferation of earmarks has corresponded with the debasement of the budgetary process in Washington. As the examples of former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.) and Jack Abramoff illustrate, lawmakers and lobbyists trade in earmarks as their “currency of corruption.” If House and Senate leaders are truly committed to overseeing “the most ethical Congress in history,” they should be making it easier, not more difficult, to follow the money trail.

Please tell your Representative and Senators today to sign CCAGW's Earmark Reform Pledge!

Current signatories as of 3/13/08:

Senators Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)

Reps. Paul Broun (R-Ga.), John Campbell (R-Calif.), Tom Feeney (R-Fla.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), Tom Price (R-Ga.), Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), and John Shadegg (R-Ariz.).

2008 Pork Book; Legislator's Pet Projects

This is my feeble attempt at shedding some light on our government's spending.

Ever wonder why our “law makers” constantly cry for more money? Ever wonder why the deficit is out of control? Ever wonder why “lawmakers” continually vote against legislation that would prohibit pet projects? The Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) just came out with their 2008 Pork Book. This lists all of the “pet projects” senators and representatives hide in spending bills. For example, the MN state legislature just passed a 5 cent gas tax increase for transportation projects. This was represented in radio ads as critical to the future of the state. So the gas tax increase passed. Now the federal pork book comes out and the state of MN is receiving $76,841,800 in transportation related earmarks in 2008 alone. This is not standard federal transportation funding, these are pet projects put in by our federal reps. That $76,841,800 is spread out in varying amounts between 24 pet projects under transportation. Seems like a lot of money, huh? Well, MN has a total of 127 earmarks for a total of $268,294,892 in special pet projects, hidden away on other federal spending bills. And MN ranks 26th! The total amount of money spent on pet projects for all states for 2008 is $10,186,338,285. And the feds are licking their chops to repeal the Bush tax cuts so they can get more money for these pet projects. The arguments that these tax cuts only for the rich are bogus, don’t believe it or at least look into it for yourself before believing what you hear on the news. Remember one very important thing, any tax increase, whether intended to target the rich or not, will end up falling on the middle class. These “rich” people they talk about have teams of lawyers that can move money out of the taxable stream, you and I do not. How about taxing the big bad corporations that make those god awful amounts of money? If you increase their taxes, the cost will get passed on to the consumer; that’s you and me.

How do our Presidential Candidates stack up this year?
Hillary Clinton: 281 Pet Projects
Barack Obama: 52 Pet Projects
John McCain: 0 Pet Projects

Here’s a great example of one such project:
$3 million for "The First Tee," a program designed to teach the game of golf to young people. This was slipped into the Defense Appropriations Bill by House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D) of South Carolina. Though The First Tee has extensive corporate sponsors and individual donators, Clyburn said the program "will help make generals and colonels."

This was buried in the Defense Appropriations Bill!!!!!!!!!! I bet Mr. Clyburn has been more than critical of defense spending in regards to the war on terror; now he sticks a golf program in there and that doesn’t bother him?

Check out this site and look up your own state or representative:
http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homePage


Also, they have a survey that you can fill out. You have to give them an email address and zip code at the end, but no other info.

2008 CAGW Survey


This should be illegal! Next time you hear these senators and reps espousing their rhetoric on the need for health care for every one and social security going broke and how schools need more money, all so they can raise your taxes - remember this. This year alone there is 10 billion dollars tucked away for pet projects. Check your own state as well. MN has a nearly 1 billion dollar bonding bill this year for pet projects. The government gets plenty of our money, they just don't know how to spend it.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this. Maybe, if enough people get sufficiently fed up, something will get done.