Earmarks, Sorry, Legislatively Directed Spending

Once again, in the spirit of bipartisanship, our legislators steal from us. This is just one section, DHS, of this years appropriations.
Isn't this supposed to be the Congress that will set a new precedent for transparency and integrity?
Seems like business as usual to me.
Outfits like CREW and TCS are working hard to expose this information. I wish I could vote for them, instead of Republican & Democrat thieves.
One item not in this part of the report is a couple of billion dollars to reimburse the cities that will host the '08 DNC & RNC conventions. The two parties don't even bother to pay their own bills anymore. They aren't actually gov't agencies, after all.
Courtesy of Tax Payers for Common Sense.

TCS ANALYSIS OF FY08 SENATE
HOMELAND SECURITY
APPROPRIATIONS BILL

Washington, D.C. - The Senate FY08 Homeland Security Appropriations bill contains $37.6 billion in funding, $2.3 billion more than the President’s request, and $2.8 billion more than 2007 appropriation.

Some of the bill’s highlights:

Earmarks

Unlike its House counterparts, the Senate discloses the requesting member of most earmarks in the legislation. But its disclosure is far from perfect.While the earmarks are listed in the report, you have to look real close because the type is small and they are scattered far and wide throughout the report. In 137 pages of the report, there are 24 earmarks, including two doozies not disclosed as earmarks.

All told, twenty Senators receive Department of Homeland Security earmarks. As usual, members on the Committee were the big winners, as only five members not on the Committee receive earmarks (Sens. Cantwell (D-WA), Corker (R-TN), Cornyn (R-TX), Kennedy (D-MA) and Kerry (D-MA)), and only two of these don’t have fellow home state Senators pulling weight for them on Committee.

Sens. Domenici (R-NM) and Shelby (R-AL) both receive three earmarks apiece and Sens. Cochran (R-MS), Hutchison (R-TX) and Murray (D-WA) each get a pair.

But wait, there’s more. TCS found two undisclosed earmarks – one for the U.S. Coast Guard Operations System Center in Kearneysville, WV and one that, in part, relocates Immigration and Customs Enforcement data centers to Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. So, one undisclosed earmark goes to the home state of the Chairman of Appropriations Robert Byrd (D-WV) and the other goes to the home state of the Ranking Member of the Committee Thad Cochran (R-MS).

The total cost of all the earmarks is more than $396.6 million. We’re not sure how much more, because one earmark, for Sen. Inouye (D-HI) just stipulates that Customs should hire temporary and part-time pest inspectors in Hawaii.
[...]
The Truman-Hobbs Act (1940) bridge program remains in good health after six earmarks were added to the tune of $16 million to alter bridges that interfere with navigation. The bridges are in Illinois (Sen. Durbin (D)), Alabama (Sen. Shelby (R)), Iowa (Sen. Harkin (D)), Massachusetts (Sens. Kennedy and Kerry (both D)), Wisconsin (Sen. Kohl (D)), and Texas (Sen. Hutchison (R)).
[...]
Conclusion

In previous years, there had been a moratorium on earmarks in the Homeland Security Appropriations bill – which was never perfect – but the moratorium seems to be relevant only if you are not on the appropriations committee. And in the beginning of a disturbing trend similar to the Department of Defense appropriations bill, many of the earmarks are popping up in the Research and Development, Training, and Services title of the bill. The appetite for R&D earmarks is nearly limitless, so we are likely watching the beginning of the slippery slope to more earmarks that direct more of our tax dollars for political gain instead of for protecting our country.

You just can't make this stuff up.
Next time a candidate, any candidate, promises tax breaks, remember this.
We're broke, there can only be tax increases to pay for the correct spending, let alone all the earmarks. Yes, Madame Speaker, no matter what you tell us to call them, they are still porky earmarks.

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The wingers anti-Calvert crusade. Dems, are you listening?

this is so very cool... they could actually earn some of my respect if they continue in this vein...

"A group of men and women across this nation ... are tired of defending a party that continually puts into positions of power known perverts, louts, and corrupt common criminals," RedState.com editor Erick Erickson wrote in a post Monday outlining his "battle plan" against Republican leaders. "We must be willing to wage war upon them until they bend to common sense and decency."

RedState is encouraging its readers to refuse to support Republican re-election efforts until Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) is booted from the House Appropriations Committee. The site, which averages more than 25,000 visits per day, posted a "declaration of war" against Republican leaders Friday.

Calvert is replacing fellow California Republican Rep. John Doolittle, who has stepped down from the committee in the midst of an FBI investigation into his wife's business association with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Erickson says Calvert is just as corrupt as Doolittle, citing press reports outlining a questionable land deal in which Calvert made more than $400,000 profit. Calvert sold the property for nearly $1 million in 2006 after securing millions of dollars in federal earmarks to build a traffic interchange 15 miles away.

of course ken denies the charge, claiming that the "facts were twisted" to create an IMPRESSION of ethical impropriety... uh-huh... ok, ken, we'll concede that COULD be a possibility... but don't you suppose the redstaters might have a problem with this OTHER juicy item, backed up by the hard evidence of a police report...?

On Nov. 28, 1993, just after midnight, Corona [CA] police found a car near the southeast corner of Victoria Park. They spotlit the interior, and a woman’s head rose from the driver’s lap. He began to drive off. Police had to instruct him three times to stop before he complied. One officer noticed the man’s unzipped pants and exposed penis. The driver hid his manhood with his untucked shirttails and claimed, “We’re just talking. That’s all. Nothing else.” He went on to tell authorities that he was Ken Calvert and had picked up a woman he’d never met when she asked for a ride. His companion, Lore Lorena Lindberg, told authorities a different story: she claimed to have met Calvert earlier that night at the Office Bar in Corona. She admitted to being a convicted prostitute and heroin user. The only item on which the congressman and the prostitute agreed is that they only “pulled over to talk.”

power... money... arrogance... hypocrisy... lying... sexual indiscretion... they all seem to go together, don't they...? ken calvert... a heckuva guy...!

now, how about a few dems click on over to redstate and take a few pointers cuz i'm not liking what i'm hearing...

House Democrats are suddenly balking at the tough lobbying reforms they touted to voters last fall as a reason for putting them in charge of Congress.

Now that they are running things, many Democrats want to keep the big campaign donations and lavish parties that lobbyists put together for them. They're also having second thoughts about having to wait an extra year before they can become high-paid lobbyists themselves should they retire or be defeated at the polls.

The growing resistance to several proposed reforms now threatens passage of a bill that once seemed on track to fulfill Democrats' campaign promise of cleaner fundraising and lobbying practices.

it's in large part the uncontrolled flow of huge rivers of cash that has gotten us to such a sorry spot in this country... let me post a comment from jim burke to an earlier post that is so common-sensical, it positively leaps off the page...

I have only one practical solution to offer. No more private or corporate campaign donations of any kind. No RNC/DNC campaign money, No personal fortunes allowed for campaigning. The only money allowed for a campaign would come from the Treasury. An allowance amount based on the position and for a fixed period before the election. Mandatory equal air time for all candidates by media outlets as a public service.

After a few elections, folks not part of the Millionaires club might have a shot at getting elected.

Of course, auditable election results would be a mandatory requirement as well.

Just a dream I have.
Jim Burke | 05.14.07 - 8:13 am | #

sweet... very sweet...

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Here's what tearing down the wall between church and state gets you

faith-based lobbyists trying to score faith-based earmarks... just fracking swell...

as night follows day, if religious organizations can wangle money out of the government to do things they otherwise would have to raise money for or not do at all, they're going to do it, right...?

St. Vincent College, a small Benedictine college southeast of Pittsburgh, wanted to realign a two-lane state road serving the campus. But the state transportation department did not have the money.

So St. Vincent tried Washington instead. The college hired a professional lobbyist in 2004 and, later that year, two paragraphs were tucked into federal appropriation bills with the help of Representative John P. Murtha, Democrat of Pennsylvania, awarding $4 million solely for that project. College officials said the work would improve the safety and appearance of the road into the campus, which President Bush visited two days ago to give the college's commencement address.

Religious organizations have long competed for federal contracts to provide social services, and they have tried to influence Congress on matters of moral and social policy - indeed, most major denominations have a presence in Washington to monitor such legislation. But an analysis of federal records shows that some religious organizations are also hiring professional lobbyists to pursue the narrowly tailored individual appropriations known as earmarks.

[...]

From 1989 to January 2007, Congress approved almost 900 earmarks for religious groups, totaling more than $318 million, with more than half of them granted in the Congressional session that included the 2004 presidential election. By contrast, the same analysis showed fewer than 60 earmarks for faith-based groups in the Congressional session that covered 1997 and 1998.

it's what's known as the law of unintended consequences... oh, but wait... we're talking about the bush administration... make that the law of INTENDED consequences...

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