by Frank James
Taxpayers for Common Sense has e-mailed reporters its database of earmarks in the omnibus $420 billion spending bill currently being debated in the Senate and here's one conclusion to draw from it: Republican senators from the South may hate Big Government but they sure love Big-Government pork.
By one measure, three of the top five senatorial earmarkers were southern conservatives, Sens. Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker from Mississippi and one from David Vitter of Louisiana. Sens. Mary Landrieu, also of Louisiana, and Tom Harkin of Iowa were the two Democrats in the top five.
Stephen Ellis, TCS's vice president, sent this note with the database:
Here's the database you all have been waiting for ... the FY09 Omnibus earmarks (8,570 worth $7.7 billion). Since the Senate started debate on the bill today, we tabulated the Senate recipients of earmarks - from top to bottom. So you'll find the Mississippi delegation at the head of the pack followed by the Louisiana delegation hot on their heels...
This is version one, it is accurate, but we will add more detail, house member totals and track down the states of many of the earmarks (we have to do a little digging in some cases where they are not described). So check back frequently. And remember, this is just the Omnibus and does not include the three FY09 spending bills that passed back in the fall (Defense, Homeland Security, and Military Construction/Veterans Affairs) that had more than 2,000 earmarks worth $6.6 billion.
Comments
Yet the media buzz about the Dems and Obama is their refusal to let go of "pork" in legislation or the new budget. The truth about pork and the GOP needs to be widely publicized, just for the sake of "fair and balanced" reporting.
http://www.political-buzz.com/
Posted by: matt | March 2, 2009 4:15 PM
If it wasn't so tragic it would be hilarious how the South has become all that the Repuglicans have left as a voting block these days.
You've got governors like Kenneth (the page) Jindal acting like he's going to take a Repug "ideological" stance and not take any stimulus money for his home state of Louisiana and then you look at the numbers and you find that rock red states like Louisiana Mississippi, South Carolina etc are the states that have been sucking up the most gov't pork the last 15-20 years...
The Repuglican party is finished. They are just to ignorant to ever change and that will be the death of them.
Posted by: CS Nowik | March 2, 2009 4:25 PM
But there wouldn't be pork there to spend if it weren't for all of these massive bills flying through the Dem controlled federal government would there...
Posted by: nobody | March 2, 2009 5:58 PM
Conservative states are also the biggest consumers of porn.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16680-porn-in-the-usa-conservatives-are-biggest-consumers.html
Posted by: Hey Joe | March 2, 2009 6:09 PM
Hey Joe, disregard that survey as it was probably taken the year I was down there!!! LOL!!
Posted by: Xcellentform | March 2, 2009 7:05 PM
Are you aware the OMB provides the full earmark database online for the public (and journalists) to use? http://www.earmarks.omb.gov/
By Subcommittee:
http://www.earmarks.omb.gov/2009-appropriations-by-spendcom/summary.html
Posted by: Tom J | March 2, 2009 8:18 PM
Tom J....you da man!! That CSV file is a hoot! All that needs to be plugged in is the party affiliations and oh we could crank out some interesting things!
Posted by: Xcellentform | March 2, 2009 10:48 PM
Someone who claims to be a conservative and likes "pork" is a liar, a fraud and a hypocrite. The same is true of those politicians who voted against the Stimulus Bill and then claimed to be proud of the results or having taken part in getting it passed. Some of them must have forgotten that voting records are available on-line, conservative watch-dog groups actually look for them, and grass-roots conservatives actually care how they vote.
Posted by: John W. | March 3, 2009 12:07 AM
The hard-earned stimulus package is founded on the pledge over the policy of transparency, no earmarks through line by line review, which is the most effective way to turn deficit into surplus, moreover, to fight the vested interests, the top priority need to be fight against the same old failed earmarks, I think.
Posted by: hsr0601 | March 3, 2009 6:52 AM
Keep spewing the nastiness.
Next elections,stand back in shock as the majority switches.
The "PR stories" don't sway the public. Their pocketbooks and freedoms do and the backlash from the public is starting to build.
Too much spending, too much taxing...it's not the misnomer..."reinvestment" and "recovery".
Taxpayers, investors and business owners are waking up.
Keep that conga line going in the White House. Let them fiddle while the public burns.
Posted by: Jack | March 3, 2009 7:03 AM
and nobody is fatter or porkier than the leader of the right, rush blimbo.....
Posted by: gladys | March 3, 2009 8:22 AM
SC's governor stated that no matter how well the stimulus may work, everything would have been better without it. That should be tested, because it will otherwise be something preachable forever. So, any earmarks or other federal spending designated for red states should not be spent except to pay down the national debt, which is only a form of future taxation, so let them have their tax reductions in that form instead. Tax rebates do not lead to investments; mostly they either pay down debt or fatten WalMart's bottom (line).
Posted by: Bruce Deemer | March 6, 2009 10:01 PM