Is Congress spending your money in secret? [EARMARKS]

examiner.com ^ | August 15, 2006

[upchuck]

Is Congress spending your money in secret?

Congress is considering a bill — the Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations measure — that presently contains 1,867 earmarks worth more than a half-billion tax dollars and averaging nearly $268,000 each. Many are for things that sound like worthy causes such as "hospital facilities and equipment," yet none of the sponsoring congressmen put their names on their earmarks.

That's why The Examiner newspapers have joined with the Sunlight Foundation, Porkbusters.org, and Citizens Against Government Waste in posting the database of earmarks in the Labor-HHS appropriations and inviting readers to help identify the congressmen behind each earmark. Organizations like The Heritage Foundation, National Taxpayers Union and Club for Growth blog are linking to the database. The database was obtained from a congressional source and has been checked and double-checked. Congress may still modify the bill, approve it as is or reject it.

Check out the earmarks for your state and then call your congressman and ask if he or she sponsored any of your state's earmarks. If the answer is yes, ask why the congressman's name isn't on the earmark. If you recognize the institution designated to receive the earmarked tax dollars, call them and ask them what they intend to do with your money.

Then email us at info@examiner.com with the subject line "Earmarks" and tell us what you found out. The Examiner will be asking more questions about who got the earmarks and why, so your information could be very important. You will be part of an army of citizen journalists determined to shine some much-needed light on spending decisions made behind closed doors by powerful Members of Congress.

Not sure who is your congressman? Go to this web site: http://www.house.gov/writerep/

View the earmarks by state:

Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

[upchuck]

Time to shine some light on the anonymous porkers. Check your state.

[upchuck]

Time to start making some phone calls and sending emails.

Shameful!

South Carolina Ping

Add me to the list. / Remove me from the list.

[Loud Mime]

If you want masterful corruption, unaccountibility and inefficeincy, the Fed is the way to go.

[Calpernia]

bttt!!!!!!

Busting open Healthy People 2010!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Woo Hoo

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1563271/posts


Bump

Bump

Bump!

[operation clinton cleanup]

Thanks for the info. This alone makes me want to your screen name.

$300,000 Cincinnati Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, for the Sound Discoveries Program for K-12 students

[Calpernia]

THIS sounds very hopeful in exposing Healthy People 2010


PING

[butternut_squash_bisque]

I can't say what should be done with these subhuman filth-garbage-trash, or I'll get into trouble with FR's mgmt.

SOB, MF-ing, bitch pols!

[NormsRevenge]

Earmarks
BumP

[Calpernia]

[GeronL]

$350,000 Port Arthur Experience Corps for capacity building and expansion

what the heck is that?

[upchuck]

what the heck is that?

Good question. One I'm sure your Congresscritter will be ever so happy to answer :)

[Calpernia]

This?

http://www.experiencecorps.org/portarthur/
Experience Corps Port Arthur, Texas

>>> Experience Corps volunteers receive extensive training in tutoring and motivational techniques, a small monetary incentive each month to defray any costs associated with volunteer assignments, and the appreciation of their community, schools, and the students they tutor. The greatest benefit of becoming an Experience Corps volunteer is knowing that you are improving the lives of children in the community.<<<<

[GrandmaPatriot]

$300,000 St. Francis Healthcare System for a telemedicine demonstrations project

What is telemedicine and why do we need a demonstrations project?

[Calpernia]

That would be Verichip:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/679883/posts

They did this demo at Robert Wood Johnson too. They promote themselves as a global leader in telemedicine.

I'll see if I can pull the Power Point file and post a link.

[GeronL]

blah blah blah

another 'volunteer' program that wastes taxpayer money with FAKE volunteers

[zeugma]

Texas adds up to 26,300,000 all by itself. Sickening.

[Calpernia]

Here you go. The Power Point is accessable from this thread:

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1596116/posts
New Medical Trend Has People Getting Checked Out Electronically and Not In Person

[Calpernia]

Bump!

[GrandmaPatriot]

Thanks, I'll read it tomorrow.

[Peach]

You know, we have to find a way to make earmarks illegal. The Congress is out of control with spending and I can see the Republicans aren't terribly concerned that they're ticking off their base with their spending.