2008 Congressional Pig Book

[Luke_Wilbur]

The little pink book that makes politicians squirm is back. In fiscal year 2008, Congress stuffed 11,610 projects (the second highest total ever) into the 12 appropriations bills worth $17.2 billion.

The 11,610 projects represent a 337 percent increase over the 2,658 projects in fiscal year 2007. The $17.2 billion is a 30 percent increase over the fiscal year 2007 total of $13.2 billion. Only the Defense and Homeland Security bills included earmarks in fiscal year 2007, so comparisons of other bills are made between fiscal years 2008 and 2006. Total pork identified by CAGWsince 1991 adds up to $271 billion.

 

“When Congress adopted earmark reforms last year, there was hope that the number and cost of earmarks would be cut in half. By any measure, that has not occurred,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.

 

In fiscal year 2008, Congress stuffed 11,610 projects (the second highest total ever) worth $17.2 billion into the 12 appropriations bills. That is a 337 percent increase over the 2,658 projects in fiscal year 2007, and a 30 percent increase over the $13.2 billion total in fiscal year 2007. Alaska led the nation with $556 in pork per capita ($380 million total), followed by Hawaii with $221 ($283 million) and North Dakota with $208 ($133 million). CAGW has identified $271 billion in total pork since 1991.

 

For the first time, the names of members of Congress were added to the projects. The top three porkers were members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, beginning with Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) with $892 million; Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) with $469 million; and Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) with $465 million.

 

The Pig Book Summary profiles the most egregious examples, breaks down pork per capita by state, and presents the annual Oinker Awards. All 11,610 projects are listed in a searchable database on CAGW’s website www.cagw.org. Examples from the 2008 Pig Book include:

 

$3 million for The First Tee;

$1,950,000 for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service;

$460,752 for hops research;

$211,509 for olive fruit fly research in Paris, France;

$196,000 for the renovation and transformation of the historic Post Office in Las Vegas;

$188,000 for the Lobster Institute in Maine; and

$148,950 for the Montana Sheep Institute.

“Americans do not send their hard-earned tax dollars to Washington so that Sen. Daniel Inouye can bring home $173 million in defense pork and receive the Pacific Fleeced Award or get sapped by $4.8 million going to wood utilization research, on which the government has spent $91 million since 1985,” concluded Schatz.

 

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW)

Leslie K. Paige, 202-467-5300

[Guest Always Red]

Congressional Pig Book Member Senator Hillary Clinton $296.2 Million 2008 OINK!!! OINK!!! OINK!!! OINK!!!

Congressional Pig Book Member Senator Barack Obama $97.4 Million 2008 OINK!!!

 

These two liberal pig candidates increased our national debt by 393.6 Million Dollars

 

Senator John McCain fiscally responsible with $0.00 of pork barrel waste.

 

Senator John McCain is the man I am voting for.

 

[Guest Eat Pork]

Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) spent $390,000 taxpayer dollars for Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. The center’s website states: “Jazz – we play it, we teach it, we write it, we dance it, we sing it, we present it, we photograph it, we film it, we produce it, we archive it, we record it, we broadcast it, we commission it, we celebrate it, we love it, we share it.” Perhaps they should pay for it, too.

 

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), spent $1,648,850 taxpayer dollars for the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. The aquarium’s website says the facility was a “gift to the people of Chicago from John Graves Shedd, president and chairman of the board of Marshall Fields & Company.” This aquarium receives 2 million visitors per year and has 36 corporate benefactors. At the end of 2004 (the last

year for which information is available), the aquarium had a fund balance of approximately $200 million. Those are some liquid assets.

 

 

In tribute to the biggest porker of all. Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) for $165.7 million in defense pork.