Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW)

Pork Advisory Level: HIGH
Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Porker of the Month:   Seven Nutty Senators

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named the seven senators who voted on September 14 to continue sending tax dollars for housing and community development programs to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) its Porkers of the Month.  The seven senators are Roland Burris (D-Ill.), Robert Casey (D-Pa.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).  The 83-7 vote to cut off funding for the group in the fiscal year 2010 Department of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act came on the heels of the release of explosive video footage of ACORN’s employees in Baltimore, Md., Washington, D.C., Brooklyn, N.Y., and San Bernardino, Calif. giving questionable legal and tax advice to filmmaker James O'Keefe and a female friend posing as a pimp and a prostitute.  ACORN’s employees gave guidance on how to shelter income illegally, mislead the Internal Revenue Service, and obfuscate the ages and immigration status of underage girls who were going to be used as prostitutes in a make-believe brothel.  “Cutting off funds to ACORN should have been the easiest vote of the year, yet these senators could not bring themselves to do it,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.  For voting to keep the spigot open to this seedy group in the face of pervasive unethical, if not outright crooked, behavior and trying to enable ACORN to fund its dysfunctional deeds with the taxes of hard-working Americans, CAGW names these seven senators its September Porkers of the Month.  Read more about the Porker of the Month.  Make a contribution today to support CAGW’s Campaign to Stop ACORN from Receiving $8.5 Billion in Federal Taxpayer Funds!

Obama Turns Deaf Ear to Opposition to Healthcare Reform Plans

CCAGW reacted with dismay and alarm to President Obama’s September 9 speech to a joint session of Congress on healthcare reform.  Despite widespread protests at town hall meetings across the country and vociferous taxpayer opposition to any further intrusion by the federal government into the nation’s healthcare system, the President used the address to burnish his commitment to a radical, overly-bureaucratic, and costly plan that would insert the federal government even further into the healthcare sector without driving down costs or delivering better health outcomes.  “The President and his Democratic allies in the House and Senate turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the voices of millions of taxpayers, who sent clear signals to their elected officials over the August recess that they reject the wasteful, hyper-partisan healthcare reform plans that have been hastily cobbled together in Congress,” said CCAGW President Tom Schatz.  “It is unlikely that their justifiable anger and mistrust were mollified by another speech filled with scolding and platitudes.”  Read more about the President’s speech to Congress.         

Pork Alert: Senate Defense Shrouded in Mystery
Wednesday, September 30, 2009

No Recession on Capitol Hill: Congress Gives Itself An Early Christmas Present
Wednesday, September 30, 2009

CAGW Releases Issue Brief on JSF Alternate Engine
Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Watchdogs Release 2009 Maine Piglet Book
Thursday, September 24, 2009

Pork Alert: Senate Transportation
Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Alternate Engine Almost Grounded
Thursday, September 10, 2009

Obama Turns Deaf Ear to Widespread Taxpayer Opposition
Thursday, September 10, 2009

CAGW to Obama, Congress: Get a Grip on Wasteful Spending
Tuesday, August 25, 2009

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