Ron Paul is Dr. No?

June 9, 2009

[Dog Gone]

Ron Paul is frequently described as a strict constitutionalist who won't vote for anything not authorized in the Constitution. Some call him Dr. No. Some call him "The Taxpayer's Best Friend."

It's a reputation that doesn't appear to square with the fact.

Try to find the constitutional authority for the earmarks he submitted for the upcoming FY 2009 budget.

Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science: • $250,000 for Galveston Economic Development Partnership, for Galveston Center for Business and Technology Development to help spin off private investment at National Lab of the University of Texas Medical Branch

• $500,000 for City of Bay City for NuBlac Rehab Center (youth rehabilitation)

Subcommittee on Defense: • $3.5 million for study of health risks of exposure to vanadium

Subcommittee on Military Construction: • $2 million for City of Bay City for NuBlac Rehab Center (serving minority veterans)

Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development: • $41.073 million for Army Corps of Engineers to deepen and widen Texas City Channel

• $21.6 million for Army Corps of Engineers to dredge and reconfigure jetties at mouth of Colorado River

• $7.02 million for Army Corps of Engineers to dredge Freeport Harbor

• $16.021 million for Army Corps of Engineers to maintain Galveston Harbor

• $1 million for Army Corps of Engineers for construction at Cedar Bayou

• $3.297 million for Army Corps of Engineers to maintain Texas City Channel

• $200,000 for Army Corps of Engineers to maintain Cedar Bayou

• $13.038 million for Army Corps of Engineers to maintain Matagorda Ship Channel

• $42.018 million for Army Corps of Engineers to maintain Gulf Intercoastal Waterway

• $3.026 million for Army Corps of Engineers to maintain channel to Victoria

• $600,000 for Army Corps of Engineers for feasibility study for Sabine Pass to Galveston Bay

• $400,000 for Army Corps of Engineers for feasibility study for Feeport Harbor

• $100,000 for Army Corps of Engineers for feasibility study for Lower Guadalupe River Basin

• $400,000 for Army Corps of Engineers for preliminary engineering and design study at Freeport Harbor.

• $21.7 million for Army Corps of Engineers for construction at Houston Galveston Navigation Channel

• $2.165 million for Army Corps of Engineers to maintain Trinity River

• $6.979 million for Army Corps of Engineers to maintain Wallisville Lake

• $1.3 million for Army Corps of Engineers to study flooding around Colorado River

• $11 million for Army Corps of Engineers for construction at Wharton and Onion Creek

• $3.026 million for Army Corps of Engineers for Chocolate Bayou

• $533,000 for Army Corps of Engineers to maintain channel to Port Bolivar

• $41.623 million for Army Corps of Engineers to maintain Houston Ship Channel

• $1.01 million for Army Corps of Engineers to maintain Double Bayou

• $3 million for Army Corps of Engineers for construction at Clear Creek

• $500,000 for Army Corps of Engineers to maintain Port Palacios

• $100,000 for Army Corps of Engineers to study sand placement near Brazoria County shoreline

Subcommittee on Interior and the Environment: • $5 million for Fort Bend County for City of Kendleton water and sewer improvements

Subcommittee on Homeland Security: • $10 million for Coast Guard to improve Galveston Rail Causeway

• $8.8 million for FEMA for drainage at Cove Harbor in Aransas County

• $2.2 million for FEMA to reconfigure and stabilize Capano Causeway Pier

• $500,000 for FEMA for Aransas County drainage master plan

• $35 million for FEMA for drainage in Friendswood

• $10 million for FEMA for drainage project for Friendswood/Clear Creek

• $10 million for FEMA for drainage project for Friendswood/Clear Creek

• $5 million for FEMA to recycle household hazardous waste in Friendswood

Subcommittee on Transportation: • $1.96 million to replace buses in and around Victoria

• $2 million to renovate transit maintenance facility in Galveston

• $5 million to reconfigure Texas Clipper training ship

• $25,000 to install security cameras at Fox Run Apartments in Victoria

• $2 million to beautify Galveston Seawall and support Transit Access Program in Galveston

• $3.6 million to construct inter-modal transit facility in Victoria

• $3.5 million for analysis of commuter rail alternatives in Galveston

• $10.3 million for City of Bay City for NuBlac Youth/Community Center

• $2.2 million for City of Bay City for improvements to electrical wiring in low and moderate income housing

Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, Education: • $90,000 for Victoria Chamber of Commerce for business/career-related education for youth

• $248,942 for UTMB for employee wellness program for small businesses

• $1.748 million for University of Houston-Victoria for DNA testing and genetic diagnostic lab

• $300,000 for Bay City MEHOP for fund reinstatement of mobile unit

• $200,000 for Bay City MEHOP to recruit nurse practitioner

• $1.92 million for UTMB to study muscle mass loss in aging vs. microgravity (NASA related) at International Space Station National Lab

• $750,000 for Houston Memorial Hermann HealthCare system for Life Flight operations center

• $26 million for Washington, D.C. "Reading is Fundamental" program

• $10 million for Boston, Mass., "Reach Out and Read" national center

Houston Chronicle

[Dog Gone]

He's the "taxpayer's best friend"?

[BGHater]

Says the National Taxpayers Union.

[Perdogg]

You forgot all the subsidies to shrimpers.

[hocndoc]

You know, a two year old can say “no!” And more consistently, too.

[Norman Bates]

Fact is Ron Paul is just another King Pork.

[Dog Gone]

• $25,000 to install security cameras at Fox Run Apartments in Victoria

Yet he voted against awarding a posthumous Congressional medal to the creator of the Peanuts comic strip.

I'm still trying to figure that one out.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Shrimp boats is a-comin’ Their sails are in sight
Shrimp boats is a-comin’ There’s dancin’ tonight
***
Shrimp boats is a-comin’ Their pork is in sight
Shrimp boats is a-comin’ There’s doping tonight

[John D]

Ron Paul IS against all earmarks because he feels they are unconstitutional, except the ones he wants. Those are perfectly constitutional, and ok.

[tacticalogic]

Care to place a bet on how he’ll vote on legislation to eliminate them if he gets the chance?

[1rudeboy]

Help me out here. $5,000,000.00 for a sunken ship?

If that doesn't define government waste, nothing does.

[Dog Gone]

It was a sunk cost.

[Captain Kirk]

A total canard. An “earmark” is not a spending increase. None of the above are actual spending votes. The best measure of spending votes is by the National Taxpayers Union and Paul consistently ranks on its honor roll as one of the best....certainly ahead of McCrazy.

[Texas Mom]

Son of a gun. I don't see anything on their for drainage in Alvin. Guess we're on our own.

He is such a arrogant phony.

[CaspersGh0sts]

RON PAUL!!!RON PAUL!!!RON PAUL!!!RON PAUL!!!RON PAUL!!!RON PAUL!!!RON PAUL!!!RON PAUL!!!RON PAUL!!!RON PAUL!!!RON PAUL!!!RON PAUL!!!RON PAUL!!!RON PAUL!!!RON PAUL!!!

I love this guy and his followers. Very comical lot.

[mountainbunny]

Earmarks in my district? Much deserved economic stimulus.

Earmarks in your district? Pork barrel politics of the worst possible type.

It always seems to depend on whose ox is being gored.

[El Conservador]

He’s a politician.

What do you expect???

Just because a bunch of pseudo-libertarian weed-smoking Troofer nutballs built a Web-based cult around him doesn’t make him better...

[El Conservador]

I’ve clocked your spin at 20 MHz...

[Wallace T.]

Santa Rosa, California, where Charles Schultz lived, is not in Ron Paul’s district. Victoria, Texas, is in his district.

[tacticalogic]

A total canard. An “earmark” is not a spending increase. None of the above are actual spending votes. The best measure of spending votes is by the National Taxpayers Union and Paul consistently ranks on its honor roll as one of the best....certainly ahead of McCrazy.

He's apparently the "King of earmarks", but nobody's willing to put up a dime that he'd vote against eliminating them. Imagine that.

[Dog Gone]

Santa Rosa, California, where Charles Schultz lived, is not in Ron Paul’s district. Victoria, Texas, is in his district.

I see. A $25 medal for Charles Schulz would be a waste of taxpayer money, but $25,000 for an apartment complex security camera system in his district is a fine use of funds from American taxpayers from all districts.

Got it.