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PrintApril 3, 2008
Hillary Tops Candidates in 'Pig Book' Congressional Porkers
I'm sure all of Hillary's earmarks went to a good cause. I'm sure they can easily be justified as prudent and necessary spending. I'm sure there isn't a single earmark in there that's politically motivated.
Riiiiiight:
The nonpartisan taxpayer watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste is out with its newest Pig Book, an overwhelming detailing of all 11,610 pork barrel projects inserted in the current fiscal year's appropriations bills by individual members of Congress.Hillary is apparently running for Porker in Chief with those kind of numbers.
These semi-secret spending measures cost taxpayers an extra $17.2 billion this fiscal year alone. This is the first year legislators have had to attach their names to these measures.
That's B for billion dollar$. In extra spending. That typically didn't go through the usual legislative committee screening. A huge increase over the previous year.
And guess which one of the surviving presidential candidates likes pork the most? And the least? According to the Pig Book ("The Book Washington Does Not Want You to Read"), New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is our new grand national oinker among presidential contenders for most pork barrel spending.
She inserted a whopping 281 individual spending projects into bills for the benefit of New York interests at the cost of taxpayers everywhere.
That totals $296.2 million.
As for Obama, for a freshman senator, he's learning the ropes very quickly. The probable Democratic candidate for president listed 53 special projects totalling nearly $100 million. This includes $402,000 for a juvenile delinquent program at the Shedd Aquairium.
Evidently those teenage Beluga whales are getting out of hand.
And John McCain? Nothing, nada, zip - he failed the pork test by not asking for a single extra dollar from the taxpayers. What kind of politician is McCain that he actually believes in not wasting money or getting money for the home folks in order to get re-elected?
My kind of politician.
