Free Republic

The text of the 1,603-page, $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill was released yesterday after House and Senate leaders wrote it behind closed doors. Instead of fighting for a provision that defunds the president's unlawful amnesty, Republican leaders fought for other riders. For example, they airdropped a political earmark into the bill that increases the amount the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) can collect from individual donors from $32,400 per year to $324,000 – a tenfold increase. Since the NRSC takes sides in primaries, the new donation limit will help the DC establishment do more to support liberal incumbents. RINOIt's an...

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) named Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) its November Porker of the Month for his second unsuccessful attempt to convince his fellow Republican lawmakers that it would be a good idea to restore earmarks. During a closed-door meeting on November 14, 2014, by a vote of 145-67, House Republicans rebuffed Rep. Roger’s effort to earmark projects for “state, locality, public utility or other public entities.” Rep. Rogers was also named CAGW’s Porker of the Month in April 2012, after his first failed attempt to end the earmark ban on March 30, 2012. Rep....

With the momentum of the appropriations process stalled in the Senate, Sen. Harry Reid is trying to bring back the grease that helps the legislative wheels roll: earmarks. It is no secret that the Senate Majority leader is a huge proponent of the specially-tailored spending provisions that have faced a moratorium in congress since 2011. “I have been a fan of earmarks since I got here the first day,” Reid proselytized in May, right as eager appropriators got off to the fastest start in recent history. But congressional appropriators’ optimism has faltered as lawmakers have failed to reconcile policy and...

Two House GOP moderates—Reps. David Joyce (R-OH) and Mike Simpson (R-ID)—made comments this week that are sure to infuriate the House GOP conference. In an interview published on YouTube as part of a series called “Solon Speaks” in Solon, Ohio, hosted by Terry Dean, Joyce said Obamacare is the law of the land—and here to stay: "The Affordable Care Act, like it or not, is the law of the land. The Supreme Court passed it. Now we’re struggling to implement what is the law of the land. In the last Congress, they put up 23 odd bills that tried to...

As hard as the establishment press has worked over the years to make certain politicians appear to be somehow out of touch with the situation of average Americans, you might think that two legislative leaders complaining about cuts in their Congressional offices' allowance might be news. One whined that her aides, some of whom "earn" in excess of $100,000 per year, are being "priced out" of a good lunch on Capitol Hill. Don't be silly. The press only cares about making Republicans and conservatives appear out of touch. The complainers in question are Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who also...

This article was adapted from the Autumn 2012 issue of City Journal. Despite a bleak decade for air travel—the result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the post-2008 economic downturn—local governments, aided by Washington, have been pouring billions of dollars into airport development and expansion. They claim that these expensive, debt-laden facilities will spur growth in economically precarious locales by attracting businesses that want more air connections. But from Cincinnati to the Florida Panhandle, this Field of Dreams approach—build it, and they will come—hasn’t worked. In 1978, Washington transformed America’s airline industry, deregulating fares, routes, and the entry of new...

WOLF REJECTS REPROGRAMMING REQUEST TO FUND THOMSON PRISON EARMARK, BLASTS HOLDER ON RECORD Letter to Holder Cites Examples of Inconsistency and Unlawful Practices Within DOJ Washington, D.C. (July 27, 2012) – Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), chairman of the House Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations subcommittee, today “unequivocally” rejected a reprogramming request to purchase the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Ill., long designated by the Obama administration to house Guantanamo Bay detainees. The Obama Administration last night made the formal request to the chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees that fund the Justice Department. In rejecting the request, Wolf, in a letter...

EARMARKS $129,859,196,359 This is a short outline describing only one method, only one very small portion of the vast Federal Budget, that elected officials use, with impunity, to TRANSFER WEALTH from hard working citizens, like you, to UNDESERVING PATRONAGE GROUPS. Or, to put it in other terms, they STEAL your money and BUY LOYALTY and VOTES so they can stay in office and power. Or to put it yet another way, THEY APPROPRIATE THE MONEY YOU WORKED YOUR ASS OFF TO EARN AND RE-DISTRIBUTE IT IN A MORE “FAIR” WAY. Don’t forget they are SMARTER than you and know how...

A provision for a uranium-enrichment plant in Ohio keeps cropping up all over Capitol Hill: $150 million in the Senate’s highway bill, $150 million in a Senate energy bill, $100 million in that bill’s House counterpart. There’s even talk of putting it in a final House-Senate transportation bill. Weren’t grants like this — earmarks by another name — supposed to be banished by Republicans in Congress? Yes. And for most lawmakers, they are. But the earmark has the top two Republicans in Congress on its side: House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). And...

Hypocrisy alert: House Republican freshmen are begging their leaders to bring back a certain type of earmark so that they can help companies back home in an election year. In a letter to Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, 65 House Republican freshmen — or roughly three-quarters of the class — asked that the House consider a miscellaneous tariff bill jampacked with special provisions to suspend duties on various foreign goods, even though it runs counter to the earmark ban Republicans campaigned on in 2010 and instituted when they took power. Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/75506.html#ixzz1svJRmu65

Ever since Rick Santilli’s “rant heard ‘round the world” spawned the Tea Party rebellion, establishment Republican leaders have been loath to admit that what motivates Tea Partiers is distaste for them and how they ran Congress, as much as it is distaste for Obama and the Democrats. Or maybe Republican leaders, particularly in the House of Representatives, are just too dumb to understand what brought them back to power after the 2010 Tea Party wave election – and it wasn’t that voters thirsted for a return to the failed policies of the Bush – Hastert – Frist axis that voters...

The huge federal transportation bill was in tatters in early March when Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama posed a heretical idea for breaking through gridlock in the House. In a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans, Rogers recommended reviving a proven legislative sweetener that became politically toxic a year ago. Bring back earmarks, Rogers, who was first elected to Congress in 2002, told his colleagues. … New Republican members backed by the Tea Party movement have railed against earmarks as a symbol of out-of-control government spending and unaccountable lawmakers. Congress has another nine months to operate under an earmark ban, so...

U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow was named “Porker of the Month” for March by a national tax watchdog organization for proposing to extend federal subsidies for green energy. Citizens Against Government Waste tabbed Sen. Stabenow, a Lansing Democrat, because she proposed an amendment to the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, that would have “extended federal subsidies for green energy, including alternative fueling stations, biofuels, refined coal, energy-efficient appliances, and wind power, among others,” according to a CAGW press release. The CAGW stated that many of the extensions Stabenow proposed were tied to the $787 billion American Recovery...

Five years ago, we set out on a quest to try to get government funding for the ultimate ridiculous project: a museum of government waste. While this might sound like a joke, sadly, it’s not. Every year, your federal government spends billions of dollars on things like swine odor research, a museum of magic, and researching why chimps throw their own poop. So we thought we’d head to Washington and try to get our own piece of pork.

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, reporters found that Santorum sent “hundreds of millions of dollars to Pennsylvania,” by looking at press releases from Santorum’s office and at news accounts at the time. Thus, we can conclude that Santorum did request earmarks as a member of Congress. Furthermore, Santorum voted for the notorious 2005 Highway Bill, which contained literally thousands of earmarks including the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” (Senate Roll Call Vote #220, 2005). Not only did Santorum vote for the bill that contained the Bridge to Nowhere, but when Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma offered an...

Hoping to stir public outrage against a rival, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are brawling over who is responsible for the most "earmarks," special projects inserted into spending bills. While the presidential hopefuls portray earmarks as a corrupting influence on politics and a waste of taxpayer funds, Connecticut lawmakers, among others, are taking a different view. Rep. John Larson, D-1st District, calls earmarks "the most misunderstood thing in Congress." "There's a difference between a 'bridge to nowhere' and funding for the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum," he said. The "bridge to nowhere" was a project in a remote corner of Alaska that...

n his New York Times bestselling book, Throw Them All Out, Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer revealed how members of Congress enrich themselves and their relatives using earmarks and insider information. Now, the Washington Post, following in Schweizer’s footsteps, has conducted a study that found 16 members of Congress have used their power of the purse to benefit companies, colleges, and community groups tied to their relatives. *snip* Among those cited in the Washington Post report were the following (below):

Rick Santorum's taken a large lead in Michigan's upcoming Republican primary. He's at 39% to 24% for Mitt Romney, 12% for Ron Paul, and 11% for Newt Gingrich. Santorum's rise is attributable to two major factors: his own personal popularity (a stellar 67/23 favorability) and GOP voters increasingly souring on Gingrich. Santorum's becoming something closer and closer to a consensus conservative candidate as Gingrich bleeds support. Santorum's winning an outright majority of the Tea Party vote with 53% to 22% for Romney and 10% for Gingrich. He comes close to one with Evangelicals as well at 48% to 20% for...

In his New York Times bestselling book, Throw Them All Out, Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer revealed how members of Congress enrich themselves and their relatives using earmarks and insider information. Now, the Washington Post, following in Schweizer’s footsteps, has conducted a study that found 16 members of Congress have used their power of the purse to benefit companies, colleges, and community groups tied to their relatives...

The announcements flowed out of Rick Santorum’s Senate office: a $3.5 million federal grant to Piasecki Aircraft to help it test a new helicopter propeller technology; another $3.5 million to JLG Industries to bolster its bid to build all-terrain forklifts for the military; $1.4 million to Medico Industries to upgrade equipment for its munitions work. [snip]