Posted on 08/19/2010 3:05:38 PM PDT by mnehring
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Pork Parade has another member, and he’s a chip off the ol’ block. Congressman Duncan D. Hunter (R-CA-52) has picked up where his father, former Congressman Duncan L. Hunter, left off. The freshman member is doing his best to bring home the bacon for some of his biggest campaign donors, one of which is a company founded by his uncle. At the same time, Congressman Hunter touts his commitment to cutting government spending on his own website. It seems the best way to maintain government funding is to donate to Mr. Hunter’s campaign.
“The rotten apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”
“The rotten apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” said Melanie Sloan, Executive Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “It’s pretty easy to draw a straight line from the contributions to Congressman Hunter to the earmarks he is requesting for his biggest donors. Perhaps he should be more honest about his actions and just place a for sale sign on his door.”
Rep. Hunter requested $26 million in earmarks for General Atomics and $3 million for TREX Enterprises for Fiscal Year 2010. General Atomics employees are among his largest campaign donors, contributing at least $26,200 to his campaign and PAC since 2007. Employees of TREX aren’t far behind, donating at least $10,350 since 2007.
Both of these companies have hired one of his father’s former staffers to lobby on their behalf. Between 2003 and 2006, TREX employed the lobbying firm NorthPoint Strategies and its founding partner Frank C. Collins; General Atomics also employed the firm and Mr. Collins in 2003 and 2004. Mr. Collins founded the firm in 2002 after serving as chief of staff to convicted felon former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA-50) and as district director to former Rep. Hunter. Both former congressmen notoriously earmarked to General Atomics and even held fundraisers at General Atomics headquarters.
Click here to read CREW’s report, Congressman Duncan Hunter’s Pork Parade.
Pinging you on the fly!
The largest earmarkers in Congress
Congress spent more on earmarks in 2009 than it did a year earlier, although the number of earmarks dropped, according to a study by the independent watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Following is the group’s list of the lawmakers who led each chamber in the amount of earmarks requested:
Senate*
Thad Cochran (R-Miss.): $497,591,000 (242 projects)
Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii): $392,432,850 (158)
Roger Wicker (R-Miss.): $368,039,000 (163)
Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.): $292,014,000 (96)
Tom Harkin (D-Iowa): $267,589,200 (194)
House
Bill Young (R-Fla.): $90,450,000 (41 projects)
Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.): $82,694,000 (51)
John Murtha (D-Pa.): 82,443,000 (34)
Harold Rogers (R-Ky.): $68,309,000 (36)
David Obey (D-Wisc.): 55,435,000 (54)
* Senate totals include projects that senators served as lead sponsor but also shared credit with other lawmakers. House totals are for earmarks in which lawmaker secured them solely on his own.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/02/the-largest-earmarkers-in-cong.html
Every single “R” that requests any sort of earmark should be condemned, it fundamentally is against everything we stand for economically. Unfortunately, that pretty much is 90% of them.
I thought I heard that Republicans had signed an agreement not to add earmarks for their own districts. I don’t know the details, but I think Jeff Flake (unsure of his first name) has been pushing for this.
Does anybody know more about this?
“Its CREW so take that for what its worth but this shows the perils of selling yourself to the DC Pork/Earmark game.”
So how did they come to isolate on him? If this info is true, he is certainly not the Lone Ranger in the earmarks game. But earmarks are one of the reasons JD is having so much problem getting traction against McCain. Earmarks are generally not fiscally responsible spending of the taxpayer’s dollars and true conservatives should steer clear of them.
True conservatives understand what nonsense it is to worry about 500 million in earmarks while passing budgets worth 10s or 100s of billions
They have a "Pork Parade" release on all the reps they select.. this one just came up on the feed and thought it was a good opportunity for a principled discussion about Earmarks and politicians selling their souls.
I think only 5 or 6 “R”s signed and live by this.. unfortunately the RINO attitude is thick to the point that a million here and a million there is nothing to the apologists.
Mighty interesting. Was just reading about daddy’s pork history the other day. Too bad this thread will get all of 20 replies.
“But earmarks are one of the reasons JD is having so much problem getting traction against McCain.”
True.
Maybe Hunter is a hypocrite. Maybe he’s a fraud. The ‘all in the family’ aspect of this certainly doesn’t look good.
However...
True fiscal conservatives have a problem. If they can’t reform the system, and they don’t bring home the bacon, then their constituents are in the position of always paying while never receiving.
Which really sucks considering that McCain was behind the biggest Pork project of them all- TARP.
IMHO, what they are starting to see is that what they receive is a gold plated stick up the keister. It may be gold but it still impales you in the long run.
WTF? $500 million ain’t chump change.
No, “true conservatives” understand that it’s the taxpayers’ money and they don’t spend a red cent of it more than is necessary.
You continue to reveal yourself to be something other than you try to pass yourself off as.
- JP
You just proved yourself an idjit. Bought into McCain’s anti-earmark lies, I see.
Hah!
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