E-News from Citizens Against Government Waste

From: Citizens Against Government Waste Sent: Friday, October 30, 2009 

Porker of the Month:  Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) Porker of the Month for loading up her goodie bag just before Halloween as she prepares to leave the Senate to run for governor of Texas.  While claiming to be a fiscal conservative, the four-term senator requested 149 pork-barrel projects costing $1.6 billion in authorization and appropriations bills for fiscal year 2010.  On September 28, 2009, she told the Austin American-Statesman, "I'm proud of being able to garner Texans' fair share of their tax dollars."  "Sen. Hutchison is repeating the same old insidious quackery about the earmarking process:  that it can be made accountable and that it somehow levels the spending playing field," said CAGW President Tom Schatz.  "The only fair way to distribute the taxpayers' money is to eliminate the practice altogether and instead work to ensure that every dime of taxpayer money is spent using the budget laws and rules that [members of Congress] themselves established."  For personifying the tiresome hypocrisy of some members of Congress who want to claim the badge of fiscal conservatism while continuing to abscond with billions of dollars in wasteful pork projects, CAGW names Sen. Hutchison the October Porker of the Month.  Read more about the Porker of the Month.   CCAGW Releases 2008 Congressional Ratings   The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) has released its 2008 Congressional Ratings, drawing attention to the outstanding voting records of dozens of members of Congress who consistently work to protect tax dollars, as well as to the congressional bottom-dwellers whose votes were hostile to the interests of taxpayers and contributed to a tsunami of new, wasteful spending and an increasingly bloated bureaucracy.  The average vote rating for the entire House of Representatives during 2008, the second session of the 110th Congress, was 35 percent, while the average for the Senate was 38 percent.  In the House, Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) was the sole "Taxpayer Super Hero" with a rating of 100 percent, while 59 House members (the same as in 2007) earned the moniker "Taxpayer Hero" with a rating of 80 percent or above.  However, the number of representatives with a perfectly abysmal score of zero skyrocketed to 34 last year, up from only two in 2007.  In the Senate, there were no "Taxpayer Super Heroes," but 14 senators did earn "Taxpayer Hero" status.  Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) posted the highest rating of 98 percent.  Seventeen senators scored zero, compared to 13 in 2007.  Read more about the 2008 Congressional Ratings.   CAGW to FCC:  Net Neutrality is a Bad Solution in Search of a Non-Existent Problem CAGW once again this month reiterated its strong opposition to the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) intention to embark on a regulatory goose chase.  On October 22, the FCC began its ill-conceived venture into drafting new rules and regulations to dictate how broadband companies must manage access to the Internet.  "Contrary to the lingo, 'net neutrality' is anything but neutral," stated CAGW President Tom Schatz.  "The Internet has flourished with a minimum of political intervention.  There is no pressing need for government involvement and no good will come from the government's creating a phony role for itself.  The Internet has been a wide-open playing field for a whole host of fierce competitors and has flourished because of government's benign indifference.  However, the new culture in Washington dictates that there is nothing anymore that is off-limits to the long arm of the feds…Taxpayers will rue the day that government regulation choked off innovation on the Internet…Any new federal regulatory role will necessitate a giant and expensive bureaucracy, whose employees will serve as the Internet police."  Read more about the FCC's planned net neutrality rules. CAGW Seeks Strict Scrutiny of Broadband Stimulus Grants   CAGW this month filed letters with the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) objecting to 23 applications for broadband grants totaling $550 million under the "economic stimulus" bill.  "There have been numerous reports of waste and mismanagement of stimulus funds, such as hundreds of underage 'first-time homebuyers,' including a four-year-old, seeking the $8,000 tax credit," remarked CAGW President Tom Schatz.  "There is a total of $4.7 billion at stake in the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), which should not become another opportunity to waste the taxpayers' money."  CAGW's letters note that the entire NTIA budget in fiscal year 2009 was $658 million.  The $4.7 billion provided in the stimulus bill for the BTOP is 624.5 percent greater than that amount.  NTIA's prior experience in issuing broadband grants was limited to the discontinued Technology Opportunities Program, which provided $233 million in grants from 1994-2004, or 5 percent of the BTOP total.  "In order for NTIA to spend $4.7 billion expeditiously without waste or mismanagement, the agency will have to thoroughly review each application.  There is a September 30, 2010 deadline to spend the stimulus money, so there may be a temptation to just say 'yes' to every applicant," added Schatz.  Read more about the applications for broadband stimulus grants that CAGW has called into question.    Wastewatcher Read the monthly newsletter online.  This month's issue includes the articles: Broadband Boondoggles The 72-Hour Bill:  A Struggle to Read over the Shoulder of Congress Medicare is Afflicted with Chronic Wasting Disease, and it's Catching In the News... Boston Herald (October 29, 2009):  "Web Posts by City Workers are Taxing" CBS News (October 22, 2009):  "Unplugged under 40:  The Battle to Change the BCS" The Dallas Morning News (October 20, 2009):  "Watchdog Group Labels Hutchison a 'Porker'"   Taxpayers Go Trick-or-Treating CAGW provides a list of who deserves tricks and who deserves treats from taxpayers. CAGW President on FOX News CAGW President Tom Schatz will be on "FOX & Friends" on Saturday, October 31, at 9:45 a.m. to discuss wasteful spending in the stimulus package.  Please tune in! Take Action! Tell Congress:  Vote NO on Any Funding for the JSF Alternate Engine! Help Stop ObamaCare NOW! Visit CAGW's Blog! Give us your opinions and tips about government waste in your area on "The Swine Line"! Pork Advisory Level:  SEVERE Read more about the Pork Advisory System.

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