(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named freshman Louisiana Rep. Charles “Charlie” Melancon (D-La.) Porker of the Month for March for fighting the President’s proposed budget cuts, opposing the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and bringing home the bacon for his district.  Rep. Melancon belittled the President’s attempts at deficit reduction, calling $15 billion in farm subsidies a “miniscule” part of the federal budget.

President Bush’s fiscal 2006 budget includes 154 program cuts or terminations, saving more than $20 billion.  The plan would cut farm payments by 5 percent and reduce the maximum farm payment to individual farmers from $360,000 to $250,000.  It would also close loopholes that allow an individual to create virtually an unlimited number of entities in order to maximize taxpayer subsidies, sometimes “earning” farmers more than $1 million in subsidies.  Such abuse is evident in the Government Accountability Office’s estimate that 60 percent of all sugar program benefits go to the wealthiest 1 percent of sugar farmers.

Rep. Melancon has, not surprisingly, become a mouthpiece for the sugar lobby.  The son of a sugar farmer, former vice chairman of the Sugar Association, and leader of the American Sugar Cane League for 12 years, the freshman congressman now sits on the House Agriculture Committee.  He has been outspoken on proposed changes in government support for agriculture; but “protecting” sugar from the free market is certainly his most ardent cause.

Big Sugar’s strategy has always been to use government to restrict competition and to protect the industry from the marketplace.  Import quotas force U.S. consumers to pay two to three times the world price for sugar and sugar products, costing about $2 billion annually.  In one recent year, taxpayers also had to pay almost $500 million for the government to purchase surplus sugar.  The sugar lobby is now using the advantage of its taxpayer subsidies to sue the maker of Splenda, the most successful sugar substitute, claiming that company is engaged in false advertising.

Rep. Melancon has also condemned the President’s cost-saving reforms in foreign aid.  Current law requires the U.S. Agency for International Development to purchase food from U.S. farmers even if overseas suppliers are cheaper and more expedient.  President Bush wants to change this policy, prompting Rep. Melancon to ask, “What happens when those countries start holding you hostage and start running up prices?”  The answer would be to buy from somebody else.  But to Melancon, who condemns market forces domestically and internationally, using the price system to get taxpayers a deal is apparently an alien concept.

Again loyal to the sugar lobby, Melancon chose his opposition to CAFTA as the topic of his first appearance on the House floor.  CAFTA would promote trade liberalization between the United States and five Central American countries.  Melancon condemns the treaty because it would lift some restrictions on sugar imports and force domestic producers to compete on an open market.

Finally, Rep. Melancon took credit for $30 million in projects included in the $284 billion highway authorization act, saying it “shows what you can do when you’re focused,” and that failing to add the projects could “slow our nation’s economy for weeks.”

For resisting much-needed reforms in flawed and abused farm subsidy policies, for shielding the sugar lobby from the free market and costing taxpayers and consumers billions, and for kicking off a career in Congress with a vocal policy of high spending and special interest protectionism, CAGW names Louisiana Congressman Charlie Melancon its Porker of the Month for March, 2005.

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating
waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.