The Pork Barrel Runneth Over - 5/11/2005 - Mortgage Loan Refinance Debt Equity

The Pork Barrel Runneth Over
by Lew Sichelman

Even the record federal $427 billion (and growing) deficit has not kept lawmakers in Washington from "bringing home the bacon," according to the 2005 Congressional Pig Book.

The signature publication of Citizens Against Government Waste, the book profiles the most egregious projects earmarked by Congress for states and congressional districts around the country. CAGW is the nation's largest non-partisan, non-profit, organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement in government.

The book lists such projects as the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame in Appleton, Wisconsin, which got $70,000 from Uncle Sam, and the Motion Picture and Television Fund in Woodland Hills, California, which was recently sent a check for $200,000.

Even the famed Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida, was given $775,000 by Congress. The hotel's owners recently completed a $40 million, 10-year renovation that included a brand, spanking new 12,000-square-foot spa. Rooms at the Biltmore go for $350 a night, but the owner was handed taxpayer money as part of a program to provide economic opportunity in areas of the country with populations of low or moderate incomes.

No wonder the Pig Book says "too many members of Congress believe that the United States Treasury is their own personal ATM. Our elected officials have let themselves go whole hog while letting down every hard-working American taxpayer."

For some lawmakers, it seems the National Anthem isn't the Star Spangled Banner but rather, the Pork Barrel Polka.

The 2005 book is the latest installment of CAGW's 15-year exposè of pork-barrel spending. This year's list also includes $100,000 for the Tiger Woods Foundation, and $75,000 for Onondaga County, New York, for the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame.

Congress feasted on pork at record levels in fiscal '05. Lawmakers stuffed 13,997 projects into 13 appropriations bills, according to the group's count. That's an increase of 31 percent over last year's total of 10,656.

The cost of the 2005 projects was $27.3 billion, or 19 percent more than last year's total of $22.9 billion.

Total pork identified by CAGW since 1991 adds up to $212 billion.

Webster's dictionary defines pork barrel as "a government project, or appropriation, yielding benefits specific to a political district and its political representative." But the watchdog group has its own definition. To make the book, items must meet at least one of the following seven criteria:

 

1. Requested by only one chamber of Congress;

    

2. Not specifically authorized;

    

3. Not competitively awarded;

    

4. Not requested by the President;

    

5. Greatly exceeds the President's budget request of funding for the previous year;

    

6. Not the subject of Congressional hearings; or

    

7. Serves only a local or special interest.

According to CAGW, Congress went hog wild when they passed the Veterans Affairs/Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act. For example, even though HUD did not ask for any funding for specific projects in the Economic Development Initiative Program, appropriators added 1,039 projects totaling $264 million.

Here are a few more projects taxpayers' hard earned money will be paying for in the coming months:

 

• $1.5 million for the Onondaga County Metropolitan Water Board, to determine the feasibility of bringing naturally chilled water from Lake Ontario to Lake Onondaga and Oswego County, New York.

   

• $72,750 for the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation, for construction of a stadium in Aberdeen, Maryland. When the stadium is completed, it will be a replica of Camden Yards in Baltimore, in order to give kids a feel for playing in the major leagues.

   

• $1 million for the B.B. King Museum Foundation in Indianola, Mississippi.

   

• $280,000 for the National Orange Show in California, an "events center" in the Inland Empire that is known as "the number one venue for public and private events." Even the Rolling Stones played there.

   

• $250,000 for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, to support community programs that, among other things, include song writing sessions.

   

• Another quarter-mil to connect the outdated North Creek Ski Bowl in New York with the Gore Mountain Ski Resort.

   

• $150,000 to the Coca-Cola Space Science Center in Columbus, Georgia. One exhibit includes a replica of a Coca-Cola drink dispenser that was the first such beverage machine taken into space. The dispenser was used during recent shuttle missions, to test the feasibility of creating, and drinking, carbonated beverages in space.