CAGW wants your input for Porker of the Year

Citizens Against Government Waste is holding a contest to determine the most successful Porker of the Year. You can vote in the contest—it only takes seconds. CAGW tracks spending by Washington politicos and if you read the briefs on each 2009 candidate, it won’t take you long to realize why Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged the US government taxes everything that moves.

I voted for Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii). CAGW pointed out, “He ranked first in earmarks in the House in fiscal year (FY) 2009 with 44 projects worth $256.8 million and fifth in the House in FY 2008 with 29 projects worth $153.6 million.”

Abercrombie is a perfect example of why earmarks should be banned and a zero-tolerance rule put in place. Washington cannot handle earmarks and the practice has gone from questionable to outrageous vote pandering. Abercrombie is leaving Congress and quite naturally, the Democratic Party praised him for his spending.

Our current president was an enthusiastic supporter and originator of earmarks—millions and millions of dollars—during his short term as a junior senator before winning the White House. President Barack Obama is not, however, on the list of finalists although I think it would have been entirely appropriate to place him there because the funding affects the deficit Dems love to blame on the previous administration. Ironically the Party forgets they’ve held Congress since the 2006 elections. In 2008 The NY Times said, "Senator Barack Obama on Thursday released a list of $740 million in earmarked spending requests that he had made over the last three years..."

Other finalists for the award are, like Abercrombie, big spenders of US tax dollars for projects the federal government has no business funding.

 US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is a perfect example. CAGW said when LaHood served in Congress, “In fiscal year 2008 alone, Rep. LaHood was responsible for securing 52 earmarks totaling $58.9 million, among them a $250,000 earmark for the Lakeview Museum Planetarium along with an additional $198,000 for the installation of green technology in the Planetarium at a time when the nation faced tens of billions in transportation maintenance backlogs.”

Then there’s Missouri Democrat Rep. Russ Carnahan. Carnahan peddled false information when he pitched the federal healthcare revamp. Among other fiscal infractions, CAGW said of Carnahan, “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.”

Tried and true spender Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is also among the Porker finalists. When bailout decisions began to cloud the land, Frank made sure a home state bank benefited. CAGW said, “According to a January 24, 2009 Boston Herald editorial, Chairman Frank made sure ‘one of the recipients of a $12 million infusion of federal cash was the troubled OneUnited Bank in Boston - a bank that had already been accused of ‘unsafe and unsound banking practices.’”

Others on the finalist list are Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.). CAGW offers a brief on each finalist’s fiscal transgressions.

As Main Street tightens the old belt, Washington is eating so many of our tax dollars on questionable projects the belt broke long ago. Politicians see earmarks as a way to bring home the bacon and buy support. Don’t be fooled. In the long run we all pay for those earmarks one way or another, from the poorest to the wealthiest.

Meanwhile, take a moment to cast your vote at CAGW. Porker of the Year is a designation that a voter should heed when election time rolls around.