When one tosses a coin into a fountain it is customary to make a wish. The wish could be as substantial as, “I wish for the winning numbers to the lottery,” or it could be as elusive as “I wish for cancer to be cured.” Until the budget for the fiscal year of 2009 was drafted, never before has a wish dictated the potential use of the discarded currency.
Rep. Young Squeals at Nomination
Porker of the Year 2007 candidate Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) took offense to his nomination and wrote a spirited yet outlandish response to CAGW President Tom Schatz defending his pork.
Murtha Named Porker of the Year
After weeks of voting, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) announced the final results of its online poll for the 2007 Porker of the Year. Rep. John “Jack” Murtha (D-Pa.) won in a landslide victory. The veteran porker received 63.4 percent of the vote. A distant second, Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) received 10.6 percent, while Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) came in with 9.9 percent, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) had 6.7 percent, and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) both finished up with 4.1 percent. The finalists were chosen by CAGW staff from among the 12 Porker of the Month winners for 2007.
Moran-ic Statements
Rep. James “Jim” Moran (D-Va.), a member of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, has threatened to play politics with the defense bill following President Bush’s promise to veto any bill that does not cut the cost and number of earmarks in half. “Defense is the only bill where we’re going to give him anything he wants. And because that’s the one he wants, it’ll be full of earmarks and he’s not going to issue a peep about that,” Moran said, according to CQ Today on January 29, 2008, the day after President Bush issued the veto threat during the State of the Union address.
Rep. Hal Rogers “Road to Nowhere.”
The Kentucky Courier Journal ran a series of articles on December 16 and 17, 2007, on a wasteful pork project, the proposed Interstate 66. This is another “road to nowhere” that dramatically demonstrates how a politician’s desire to “bring home the bacon” trumps other needed public works.
IRS Still Plagued By Security Vulnerability
The Government Accountability Project (GAO) released a report on January 8, 2008 documenting the mediocre progress made by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) toward tightening its information security systems. The GAO said: “The IRS is at increased risk of unauthorized access to and disclosure, modification, and destruction of financial and taxpayer information, as well as inadvertent or deliberate disruption of system operations and services.”
Binging On Taxpayer Dollars
The over-indulgent, over-zealous party attendee can certainly be an obnoxious component of any weekend celebration. This individual is often referred to as That Guy.
The societal pressures on a returning serviceman can, at times, be overwhelming. However, when the Department of Defense (DoD), as reported by the American Forces Press Service on January 27, 2005, tries to curb these pressures with a $13 million program called TRICARE that purports to give them the “tools” to make healthy adjustments to their potentially unruly behavior, one cannot help but question its usefulness. The website ThatGuy.com is one such attempt.
No Congressional Pay Raise
One of the few remaining issues that enjoyed bipartisan support was finally broken up when Democrats used the annual “cost of living allowance” (COLA) increase to attack Republicans during the 2006 campaign. Democrats also pledged not to pass a COLA until a new minimum wage bill was passed.
With the minimum wage bill being held up in the Senate and the February 15 COLA vote fast approaching, Democrats tried to reach an agreement to push back the COLA vote so they could still get the pay raise without breaking their campaign promise. Republicans, miffed at the use of COLA during their losing campaign, blocked the congressional pay raise for the first time in almost a decade.
FCC Trying to Take Over Your TV
WHEEL OF FORTUNE! It slices, it dices- Tony Romo, back to pass . These are the sounds of America’s quintessential channel surfers, as they look for that perfect show to watch. But if Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin has his way, this activity would be under stricter government control and ultimately more expensive to […]
Embattled Doan Cuts Waste
The General Services Administration (GSA) is often called “the government’s landlord.” It is responsible for the upkeep of the government’s 8,600 buildings. The agency has a $66 billion budget and 12,000 employees, and its current administrator is Lurita Doan.
While she has been making progress in reducing wasteful spending at GSA, Doan has dealt with several scandals. Soon after taking over GSA in May, 2006, she gave a no-bid contract to a company owned by a longtime friend. According to a January 19, 2007 article in The Washington Post, the $20,000 contract signed by Doan was cancelled in the summer of 2006, after senior GSA officials determined that it violated procurement rules.