CAGW Names Rep.
Mica Porker of the Month
Washington, D.C. - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named
Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) its July Porker of the Month for his
opposition to an earmark ban and defense of earmarks.
According to the Orlando
Sentinel, on July 8, Rep. Mica said, “There’s no way in hell I would
support banning earmarks … That’s our job, getting elected and making decisions.
Yes, there are bad earmarks, like there are bad members of Congress. And what
you do is get rid of them.”
CAGW’s 2008 Congressional Pig Book
uncovered 11,610 pork-barrel projects worth $17.2 billion in the 12
fiscal year 2008 appropriations bills.
Contrary to what Rep. Mica thinks, all earmarks are bad because they are
congressionally targeted expenditures which bypass the normal budget rules and
are unaccountable. The 2008 Pig Book
included $3,000,000 for The First Tee; $1,950,000 for the Charles B. Rangel
Center for Public Service; and $188,000 for the Lobster Institute in Maine.
Earmarking is not Congress’
“job,” as Rep. Mica claims. Before the 1980s, Congress would fund general grant programs and let
federal and state agencies select individual recipients through a competitive
process or formula. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees named
specific projects only when they had been the subject of hearings and approved
by authorizing committees. Members of Congress with local concerns would lobby
the president and federal agencies for consideration. The normal budget
process, which is aimed at preventing abuse and allocating resources on the
basis of merit and need, has become a sideshow in the scramble by individual
appropriations committee members to pick winners and losers based on
seniority.
Earmarking
invites corrupt behavior. Rep. Randy
“Duke” Cunningham’s indictment and conviction (R-Calif.) for earmarking in
return for bribes is the most notorious example. In June, it was revealed that former
Congressman John Sweeney (R-N.Y.) is being investigated by the Justice
Department for his role in directing earmarks to a lobbyist. On July 2, The Washington
Times ran an opinion piece that documented how a program to combat
improvised explosive devices in Iraq was earmarked to an
inexperienced contractor who had bribed and donated to members of Congress. That program was a failure that cost not just
tax dollars, but American lives.
The concept
of an earmark ban has gained traction in the wake of these abuses. In
March, a Senate amendment to the 2009 budget resolution to impose a
year-long moratorium on congressional earmarks was co-sponsored by Sens. Jim
DeMint (R-S.C.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Claire
McCaskill (D-Mo.), and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), among others, but lost 29-71. Forty Representatives
and six
Senators have made personal pledges not to request any earmarks this
year. An earmark ban will allow members
to reform the appropriations process, devote more attention to critical national
issues, and help keep money in taxpayers’ wallets instead of diverting it to
Washington
where it can be converted into pork.
For opposing an earmark ban
or moratorium and defending the out of control earmarking process, CAGW names
Rep. John Mica its July 2008 Porker of the Month.
Citizens Against Government
Waste
is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to
eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given
to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a
blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.
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Rep. John Mica
