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Senator John McCain (AP photo)
During the 2008 election cycle, presidential candidates from both parties spent much time raising the issue of reducing or altogether eliminating wasteful government / congressional spending otherwise known as earmarks - those attachments on bills typically directing federal dollars for pet projects on local districts.
Sen. John McCain, in particular, has been a loud vocal critic against government pork. Especially in very difficult times for many Americans, this issue can pick up steam throughout 2009 as the new Administration attempts to push through various important legislation through Congress. Recently, Senator McCain's Facebook page published 10 spending items it deemed as particularly wasteful.
And if I may, momentarily hallucinate as a fiscal conservative, contribute some personal commentary.
The Top 10:
10. $1.7 million "for a honey bee factory" in Weslaco, TX
Nothing takes out the "sting" of the weak economy than drinking coffee sweetened with (government funded) honey.
9. $475,000 to build a parking garage in Provo City, Utah
We assume this is parking that is NOT needed. Federal money for a local town's parking garage? Don't local folks pay for that?
8. $200,000 for a tattoo removal violence outreach program that could help gang members or others shed visible signs of their past
When money is tight, how about clothing?
7. $300,000 for the Montana World Trade Center
Terror alert.
6. $1 million for mormon cricket control in Utah
Earplugs.
5. $650,000 for beaver management in North Carolina and Mississippi
Hunting licenses make money.
4. $2.1 million for the Center for Grape Genetics in New York
When I was a kid, I used to watch "The Six Million Dollar Man." Now, we have Wolverine.
3. $332,000 for the design and construction of a school sidewalk in Franklin, Texas
Again, local.
2. $2 million “for the promotion of astronomy” in Hawaii
Anyone can just look up at the sky at night while on one of Hawaii's beaches.
1. $1.7 million for pig odor research in Iowa
If it makes better pork chops, I support this one.
___________________________
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Marv Dumon is a mid-market investment banker conveying operational experience with three public companies. He is also a business and finance columnist for Forbes. Marv received his BA, BBA, and MPA degrees from The University of Texas at Austin. Contact information at marvin.dumon@gmail.com. You can subscribe to Marv's articles by clicking on the Subscribe button.
Comments
Each Legislator that proposed these should be mandated to be "human mole" in a giant Whack-A-Mole game that tours the country. At least let us get a few hits to make us feel better.
"I rise to propose 2.8 million dollars to create a traveling Whack-A-Mole game for the relief of taxpayer anger."
John McCain missed a rather significant amount of pork barrel spending.
Currently, illegal aliens are costing American taxpayers about a TRILLION dollars a year. This is about equal to our current federal stimulus package.
Rather annoying to know an amount of money equal to our current stimulus package, intended to help Americans, rather annoying to know this money will end up in the pockets of illegal aliens who will promptly ship this money to countries down south, countries which do not much like America.
Why is our government, why are our peoples afraid to address, discuss and resolve this issue which is financially destroying our country?
You know if we resolve this trillion dollar a year illegal alien problem, we will resolve our economic crisis.
Google "illegal alien costs" and you will be both shocked and angered.
Okpulot Taha
Choctaw Nation
How could the $1 Billion (yes with a B) for Salmon conservation not make this list?
OINK OINK OINK OINK OINK OINK -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This article is some serious flaws in it since some of these earmarks are useful expenditures for our government and country.
A bee factory would be a great idea if it was to help make more bees. Bee populations are currently in decline. Without bees, pollination of crops decreases, which leads to less food for our growing civilizations.
A tattoo removal machine helps former gang members shed those harmful (they could be killed by any number of groups, including their own gangs) reminders of their past while they try to move forward with a better life. Isn't that something we should be applauding instead of mocking? Also, some gang tattoos can't easily be covered up by some simple clothing. Oh yeah, it'll also create jobs for people who can run the machines.
The astronomy promotion in Hawaii is probably more involved with the the promotion of professional astronomy. This helps increase state and federal money as astronomers have to pay for telescope time at these large research facilities. This could help create demand for better telescopes, which would create jobs for people who would build this telescope. This doesn't even mention the public benefits of discoveries made by the astronomers using these telescopes.
Maybe the writer needs to think about what is the purpose of government in this process. Shouldn't the government allocate money for necessary projects that normal individuals could not do that would benefit more than just that individual? Isn't this why Bobby Jindal and John McCain were mocked for their calling out of earmarks and wasteful spending on projects that benefitted a large number of people? While a bridge to nowhere benefits no one, a bee factory, a tattoo removal machine, a volcano monitoring system or a planetarium projector enriches not only the local individual but helps benefit our country's citizens.
Tom
I want to congratulate and echo Tom for his insightful post. This ridicule of programs without any research into what the programs are has to stop!!
As for the construction (parking garage, school sidewalk), there are appropriations for land acquisition and similar construction projects in almost every other state in the omnibus bill, so it isn't helpful to merely single out two.
Tom is 100% correct about the honey bees, they are disappearing and NO ONE knows why. But they are absolutely vital to our agricultural economy.
As for grape research, grape products and wine production are a major industry in the US (a $7 billion industry in New York alone and NY is only the 3rd largest of such industries in the US). The facility at Cornell would allow this industry to grow and be more competitive in the world market.
The Mormon Cricket is a HIGHLY invasive species that quickly populate and can destroy entire crops (in 1938 an infestation wiped out 19 MILLION crops in 11 states).
As for beaver management, beavers can cause millions of dollars worth of direct flood damage to infrastructure and crop devastation if not properly controlled. In states like Mississippi and North Carolina this is a vast economic problem that then effects the entire US economy if agricultural production is severely impeded.
Pig odor. In states that have higher pig populations than people, the smell often leads to complaints and even litigation against farmers who are an integral part of our economy. The cost of burdening the system with so many complaints and litigation cases, as well as the cost to the farmers who may be driven out of business by this, and the impact it has on the economy is far greater than the cost of effective research to curb the problem.
So the bottom line is: Improving the economy
Economy, economy, economy!!!
This is in response to Okpulot Taha.
You can't solely blame the problem on illegal immigration. Are illegals responsible for market crashes, job loss, and many of the problems we face now? I think not.
Here is an interesting Q&A from the AP. Hope it helps you look at both sides before playing the blame game.
I hear so many conflicting stories on illegal immigration. Please tell me if you can how much the illegal immigrants contribute to the economy and how much they use in free services. If they all got deported, how would it affect our economy?
Cindy Garcia
Vista, Calif.
ANSWER: It's tough to say how many people are in the U.S. illegally, let alone how many are working or using public resources. Every study uses rough estimates. Still, we do have some clues.
Illegal immigrants contribute to the economy whenever they pay sales tax and, indirectly through rent payments, real estate taxes.
Also, those who use false Social Security numbers pay taxes into the system they don't get back, since people here illegally aren't eligible to receive Social Security payments. In 2003 alone, the government received Social Security taxes on $57.8 billion from wage reports that couldn't be matched to the person filing.
Illegal immigrants are excluded from most federal and state entitlements such as subsidized housing or food stamps, and a 2007 congressional report found they appear to contribute more than they use in services. But the money they contribute often goes to federal and state coffers, while many services they benefit from, such as health and law enforcement, come out of local government budgets.
Several studies show more than half of the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants are uninsured (out of a total of 47 million uninsured people in the U.S.) and thus likely to use public emergency rooms that treat everyone regardless of ability to pay. It's difficult to calculate the amount of free health care - or, for that matter, free public-school education - they benefit from, since it simply isn't known what proportion of these services go to people who are in the country illegally.
Another cost of illegal immigrants: Their willingness to accept low wages drives down wages in some industries. Then again, if immigrants didn't take these jobs, some of them might get outsourced overseas.
Using Pew Hispanic Center and U.S. Census statistics, the independent economic research firm the Perryman Group concluded that if all illegal immigrants were deported, agriculture would lose nearly a quarter of its workers, the building maintenance industry would lose 17 percent and the construction industry would lose almost 15 percent.
Laura Wides-Munoz, Miami
Jacques Billeaud, Phoenix
Suzanne Gamboa, Washington
Associated Press Writers
And last but not least Kudos to Tom and Jenn
Hey Marv, this top ten list is fantastic. Maybe they should spend million on researching pig flu instead of odors. You can post this to our site toptentopten.com and link back to your site. We are trying to create a directory for top ten lists where people can find your site. The coolest feature is you can let other people vote on the rankings of your list.
there should be a bill to stop earmarks(pork)
that only decreases the efficiency of our capital
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