For Immediate Release                                      Contact: Leslie K. Paige 202-467-5334 
Sepptember 30, 2009

No Recession on Capitol Hill:  Congress Gives Itself An Early Christmas Present

(Washington, D.C.) - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), the nation’s premier taxpayer watchdog organization, today reacted with outrage at news that the U.S. Senate plans to pass the fiscal year 2010 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, which will increase spending by 5.8 percent.  As reported in today’s Politico, the bill, which is expected to pass sometime today and be signed into law by President Obama, includes increases for staff salaries and the Architect of the Capitol, as well as new money for parties for dignitaries and VIPs, mailings for town hall meetings, and political consultants.

“Members of Congress are beginning to look like aristocrats in the French court of Queen Marie Antoinette,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.  “Taxpayers across the country are reeling from a 9.7 percent unemployment rate, stock markets losses that have devastated their retirement funds and their ability to send their children to college, as well as chronic uncertainty about their economic future.  The country is facing a record $1.6 trillion budget deficit and $11.8 trillion national debt.  For members of Congress, there is no uncertainty there is always enough money to satisfy their every whim, because taxpayers are paying for it.”

Politico reports that the bill includes a 128 percent increase for House office buildings.  The Architect of the Capitol will receive a 17.8 percent boost.  Congressional staff will see their salaries boosted by 5 percent.  The bill also contains $500,000 so that members can engage in a “pilot program” to send out postcards to their constituents about their town hall meetings.  There is also a $200,000 earmark for a museum in Omaha, Nebraska.

“It is staggering that members of Congress have the audacity to defend this voracity as ‘fiscally responsible.’  Any elected official who believes that this money-grubbing is fiscally responsible should not have their hand on the nation’s purse strings; they might spend the people’s money with such abandon that they drive the deficit through the roof and endanger our fiscal safety and soundness.  Oh wait, they’ve already done that,” added Schatz.

“The August recess saw an unprecedented level of anger and frustration expressed by taxpayers at town hall meetings.  Hundreds of thousands of taxpayers descended upon Washington on Saturday, September 12 to decry irresponsible federal spending,” concluded Schatz.  “For every one of those people who made it to Washington at their own expense, there were tens of thousands more who couldn’t afford to come.  The excessive spending in the legislative branch appropriations bill is exactly the sort of arrogance and recklessness about which they continue to express their outrage.”

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.

                                                                   -###-