"Pig Book" calls out top congressional porkers
Program note: Tune in tonight to watch Drew Griffin's special report on AC 360° at 10 p.m. ET.
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/POLITICS/04/14/earmarks/art.pig.file.afp.gi.jpg caption="Research on swine odor is one of the projects listed in the "Pig Book," released Tuesday."]
CNN
Listen closely and you'll hear squeals of disgust from a watchdog group tracking congressional pork in the nation's capital.
Citizens Against Government Waste is out with its annual "Pig Book" - a list of lawmakers whom the group considers the most egregious porkers, members of the House and Senate who use the earmarking process to funnel money to projects on their home turf.
Fittingly perhaps, the list includes nearly $1.8 million for swine odor and manure management research in Iowa.
"In fiscal year 2009, Congress stuffed 10,160 projects into the 12 appropriations bills worth $19.6 billion," the group said in a report released Tuesday. The amount marks a 14 percent increase over 2008.
The "Pig Book" also names dozens of what it considers the most blatant examples of pork-barrel spending.
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Filed under: Economy • Raw Politics |
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3.8 million to figure out how to use the old Tiger stadium???? Amazing. I know if the big picture those are small numbers, but they add up fast and I am sick of paying for it, or rather, asking my grandkids to pay.
Only Republicans get pork, Democrats would never accept or ask for any pork.
If people don’t like “Pork Barrel Spending” they ought to move out of the country and go back to wherever they came from.. Or just wait for Obama to leave office..
Regardless of earmarks, no discussion of Congress is complete without including the Queen of the Pigs, Barney Frank.
This Porker for the Ages, is the living, breathing definition of swine; aside from a few at Fannie and Freddie, no one should roll around with him in the mud since you'll both get dirty but he'll like it.
I am outraged at the earmarks and pork that we, the taxpayer, are responsible for. I think every earmark should have to be DEBATED IN ON TV before taking a vote on it. It should also be posted on the internet a week before the vote. How can we tolerate the bill to be put in the stimulus at night with no name attached. WE MUST PUT A STOP TO THIS. Of course the only way WE can do it is put rising up and insist on being heard–as we did on the bonuses.
Fittingly perhaps, the list includes nearly $1.8 million for swine odor and manure management research in Iowa.
It's easy to look at something called "swine odor research" and immediately tag it as frivolous and wasteful, but studies have shown that people living in rural areas exposed to it have developed fairly serious health issues – I certainly hope tonight's report will address that aspect of this subject as well.
We need accountability, and the transparency that President Obama has promised us to become reality before publication of "The Pig Book" becomes nonessential.
Joanna, yes! I thought that the elimination of special interest groups was another item on President Obama's agenda!
See, this is what makes me upset, when people complain about paying taxes. It's not taxes that are the problem – we wouldn't have roads to drive on, military, bridges to cross over, Medicare, etc. if we didn't pay taxes. The problem is, that our tax dollars are also going to a miriad of special interest groups that we don't even know about. That's the problem!!! We need to get rid of special interest groups not taxes. Special interest groups take democracy and throw it out the window.
The Pig Book – that sounds like the old "golden Fleece" award that was given each year to the biggest boondoggles in the budget. I hope in your report tonight you tell us what some of the really outrageous projects are – I would like to see what my money is being wasted on.