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The earmark vote shows that far too many purportedly conservative lawmakers want to partake in the big-government excesses of the Biden era.It appears House Republicans need to become re-acquainted with the late Democratic Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn and humorist Mark Twain. Both men famously commented on the lack of educational value of the second kick of a mule, which aptly describes the actions of the Republican conference in endorsing a return to congressional earmarks.These earmarks—or, as lawmakers now wish to rebrand them, “community project funding”—bred corruption and scandals during their heyday in the 2000s. Just as important, they...

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Germany is living up to its environmentally-friendly image by spending millions of euros on building bridges just for animals. Humans caught crossing them face a €35 fine. More than a hundred wildlife bridges are to be built in the next decade. Gerhard Klesen, a forester employed by the Ruhr Regional Association, spent a decade campaigning for an animal-only bridge to be built over a motorway in the town of Schermbeck in North Rhine-Westphalia. Man-made barriers such as roads and canals restrict animals’ natural movement, he said. That limits genetic diversity, which in turn leads to an increase in disease and...

“The Pig Cafeteria” was an exhibit produced by the Department of Agriculture to educate farmers about new methods of farming and raising livestock — specifically, what to feed pigs so that they would be healthy and profitable.

Senator says nuts to SDSU 'RoboSquirrel' study - The 'Robosquirrel' developed by San Diego State and UC Davis can move its tail to mimic the behavior of a real animal. UC Davis A San Diego State University research project involving robotic squirrels has been placed on Sen. Tom Coburn's annual list of wasteful government spending, a move the campus says is unfair and misleading. Coburn, R-Okla., issued the list last week, criticizing everything from the use of food stamps to purchase fast food to a subsidy for a struggling ferry business in Alaska. The list also is critical of the...

On Monday, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), agreed to a ban on earmarks. Originally, he had resisted such a ban, arguing that it would put the president in charge of state spending, but noted that most Americans were upset over abuses in the system. According to an article at Fox News, McConnell said: "As the leader of my party in the Senate, I have to lead first by example," McConnell, R-Ky., said from the floor of the Senate on the first day of its lame-duck session. "Nearly every day that the Senate’s been in session for the past two years,...

Enraged voters, too dumb to appreciate the purveyors of pork . . . That was Mike Allen's complaint on Morning Joe today. Politico's chief political correspondent labelled "absurd" the decision of Utah and Nevada voters not to re-elect Bob Bennett [done deal] and Harry Reid [likely goner]. And why is it such a bad mistake? Because Bennett and Reid are proven pork providers for their states. Allen offered his analysis in response to Mike Barnicle's suggestion that in the current political climate, bringing home the bacon might actually backfire on politicians. View video here.

2010 Education Pork Bethany Stotts, April 26, 2010 The 2010 Congressional Pig Book, released by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) is out, and it exposes the considerable pork given to academia. “Sen. [Tom] Harkin [D-Iowa] has long been a determined crusader for pork,” states the Pig Book summary (pdf). “In a November 25, 2006 New York Times article, he claimed, ‘I happen to be a supporter of earmarks, unabashedly. But I don’t call them earmarks. It is “Congressional directed spending.”’” Harkin, who chairs the Senate Labor/HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, earmarked approximately $7.29 million “for the Iowa Department of Education” to run...

A week ago I was at McDonald's ordering lunch. It was very busy and there was a large crowd present. I ordered the food and waited around for a few minutes. While I was doing so, a manager and another crewmemeber were getting ready to put the flags up on the pole. The manager showed him how to fold the flags up and they folded up old glory into a nice triangle with loving and patriotic care. While they were folding the McDonald's flag, a funny looking woman in her thirties with two tots in a carriage walked up to...

Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, at age 38 and having served less than five terms, did not leap over a dozen of his seniors to become ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee by bashing GOP leaders. But an angry Ryan last Wednesday delivered unscripted remarks on the House floor as the farm bill neared passage: "This bill is an absence of leadership. This bill shows we are not leading." Ryan's fellow reformer, 45-year-old Jeff Flake of Arizona, in his fourth term, is less cautious about defying the leadership and has been kept off key committees. On Wednesday, he said...

TexDOT: No Money to Build New Hghways Agency blames diversion of state gas tax money, curbs on privately funded toll roads By Jim Forsyth Friday, September 28, 2007 At a time the Texas Department of Transportation is defending spending thousands of dollars on a public relations campaign designed to convince you to support toll roads, the department says it has no money to pay for highway construction, 1200 WOAI's Robert Wood reports. "The bottom line is, we're running out of money very quickly," TexDOT's Chris Lippincott says. Lippincott blames decisions by state lawmakers to spend more than $1.5 billion in...

There has been a void in the Republican presidential race. The party's candidates have spoken about immigration, taxes, social issues and the war in Iraq. Mitt Romney, Rudolph Giuliani and John McCain have also spoken frequently about Ronald Reagan in order to position themselves as the political heirs to the great president. The candidates, however, have overlooked a central idea that animated Mr. Reagan's view of government. That was federalism, the constitutional principle that the federal government's responsibilities are "few and defined" as James Madison put it. Mr. Reagan believed the federal government had grown too big and swallowed up...

The Democrats, flush from their 2006 election gains, took over Congress in January, promising to end the legislative stalemate and pass a sweeping agenda for reform. Nearly six months later, they have backpedaled on their promises of reform; they've made little progress on major legislation; their job-approval ratings have taken a nosedive; and there's talk for the first time that House Democrats could lose seats to the Republicans in 2008. They came into power pledging to curb wasteful pork projects that had hit a record $23 billion in 2006. Then they passed a budget resolution that would increase nondefense discretionary...

A taxpayer watchdog group says Democrats in Congress are not living up to their promise of openness and transparency in the appropriations process. The group, Citizens Against Government Waste, says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's vow that her party would preside over "the most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history" has already proven to be a phony promise. House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey (D-Wisconsin) has announced he will allow all earmarks into conference reports, which are negotiated behind closed doors and cannot be amended when they reach the House and Senate floors. Obey's plan ignores rules that...

While House Republicans reacted to stinging rejection from America's voters by refusing to change leadership, their Senate counterparts have tried to use their closing weeks in power to enact a last burst of pork-barrel spending. But that effort was stalled last week by independent-minded Republican senators, spearheaded by two abrasive freshmen and one longtime hairshirt. Before Congress recessed Friday for Thanksgiving, the GOP leadership appeared to capitulate. The freshmen, Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint, campaigning in 2004 in Oklahoma and South Carolina, promised not to fall in line with GOP leaders. Fulfilling that pledge allied them with the long-termer John...

Members of Congress have returned after unwinding from a “grueling” legislative calendar: The Senate was in session for 101 days and the House was in session for 76 days, compared to 141 days worked by the average American. After catching up on their sleep, members will try to convince the folks back home to re-elect them. Based on the August 8 primary results, incumbents better wake up. The voters should also be aware that many members of Congress are preventing them from making informed decisions on Election Day. As in most recent years, Congress is woefully behind in passing the...

Under a spending bill passed Thursday by the Senate Appropriations Committee approximately $2.5million would be appropriated for public beach and wildlife habitat purchases on Dauphin Island out of the next federal budget. The bill was created by Republican Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama. Senator Shelby heads the subcommittee that crafted the spending bill. Why is this happening, you ask? Because Shelby knows Dauphin Island needs these things for its continued growth as a socio-economic entity. Because Dauphin Island officials don't have the resources to do this themselves. And because he's in a position to allocate a small portion of pork...

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) Co-Porkers of the Month for their editorial “Earnest Earmarks,” which portrays earmarking as a proper exercise of Congress’s constitutional spending power and a check on the growth of government. Sen. Craig and Rep. Simpson argue that earmarks do not increase spending because Appropriations Committees must stay within the overall limits set by the budget resolution. But the budget resolution is nonbinding and Congress routinely exceeds its spending caps. Furthermore, lawmakers often vote for expensive bills in exchange for pork projects in their home districts....

...The seven-point criteria to classify a project as pork-barrel spending were developed in conjunction with the bipartisan Congressional Porkbusters Coalition. They are: * The project was requested by only one member of Congress; * The project was not specifically authorized; * The project was not competitively awarded; * The project was not requested by the President; * The project greatly exceeds the President’s budget request or the previous year’s funding; * The project was not the subject of a hearing; and, * The project only serves a local or special interest. Any project that meets one or more of these...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Will Adams November 18, 2005 202.226.6997 Tancredo Blasts Colorado’s ‘Bridge for Nobody’ Tancredo Says Animal Bridge Shows Democrats’ Hypocrisy on Budget Rhetoric WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) blasted Colorado’s “vegetated wildlife overpass” as an egregious example of the Democrats’ pork-barrel spending. The $500,000 down payment on the nearly $5 million overpass, which was approved as part of the Transportation Appropriations bill today, will, apparently, serve animals who want to cross over I-70 near Vail. “We’ve all heard of the ‘bridge to nowhere’ that was stripped from the transportation bill today. At least that bridge...