Coburn Details $7 Billion in Waste from 100 Dumb Projects

At some point we will need to go beyond merely cutting waste, fraud, and abuse.  We will eventually have to wind down the welfare state and close government departments and agencies.  However, there is no reason we shouldn’t demand an immediate bipartisan effort to eliminate programs that are just plain dumb, even according to Democrat socialist ideology.

Nobody has been more assiduous and instrumental in identifying silly government projects than Senator Tom Coburn.  Yesterday, Senator Coburn released his annual “Wastebook” profiling 100 “unnecessary, duplicative, or just plain stupid projects spread throughout the federal government.” The total cost of these programs is $6.9 billion.  Cutting these programs would only account for roughly 40 hours of our debt, but why spend a penny on this stuff?

Here are some of the greatest hits:

• $120 million in retirement and disability benefits to federal employees who have died
• $30 million to help Pakistani Mango farmers
• $550,000 for a documentary about how rock music contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union
• $10 million for a remake of “Sesame Street” for Pakistan
• $764,825 to examine how college students use mobile devices for social networking.
• $113,227 for a video game preservation center in New York
• $765,828 to subsidize a “pancakes for yuppies” program in Washington, D.C.
• $100,000 for a celebrity chef show in Indonesia
• $175,587 for a study on the link between cocaine and the mating habits of quail
• $606,000 for a study about online dating
• $17.80 Million in Foreign Aid to… China – (Department of State & U.S. Agency for International Development)
• The Super-Bridge to Nowhere – (Alaska) $15.3 Million
  

Yes, this is mere pocket change; we will not balance the budget by eliminating these preposterous projects.  Nevertheless, they reveal just how apathetic our lawmakers are in handling public funds.  They are also emblematic of the ridiculous budget process that has been in place in recent years.  If we are going to pass 1200-page bills that fund the entire government with such short notice, we will invariably continue to fund these projects.

Coburn’s report gives us another 100 reasons why we should never pass omnibus bills.

Obama’s Fuzzy Stimulus Math

Obama proposes 36% cut to Social Security revenue

Let’s forget the fact that Obama’s entire Stimulus 10.0 is a counterintuitive proposal that doubles down on the very failures that precipitated this speech.  Let’s also disregard the fact that enshrining unemployment insurance as a permanent handout will perpetuate unemployment.  And more union-induced, short-term money drops on infrastructure will do nothing but stimulate traffic jams.  Let’s focus purely on the very numbers that the administration has offered –numbers that would undoubtedly be revised upward, if the plan is passed.

Total package – $447 billion


- 50% payroll tax cut for every employee, dropping the rate from 6.2% to 3.1%= $175 billion
-Obama also proposed cutting the employer payroll tax in half on the first $5 million of a firm’s payroll in 2012. About 98% of firms have payrolls of $5 million or less.= $70 billion
-National infrastructure bank = $10 billion
- Pork project handouts to unions for roads, rails and bridges= $50 billion
-An unprecedented extension of unemployment insurance benefits to be extended for another year, beyond the 99 weeks= $62 billion.
-Handouts to public school teacher unions, even though we already spend more per capita on education than any other country=$35 billion
-Refurbishing schools, a responsibility of local government=$25 billion
-Handouts to community colleges=$5 billion
-Rehabilitate vacant property=$15 billion


Despite the steep cost, Obama claims that it will all be paid for.  How will he pay for it?

Obama Makes the Case for State Control of Surface Transportation

Abolishing the federal gas tax will spawn real innovation in road construction.
Earlier today, Barack Obama decried the gridlock that has prevented Congress from passing a long-term surface transportation bill (highway bill) as unacceptable and inexcusable.  He also asserted that we must formulate a policy in which funding would be directed to those districts that need it the most, instead of politically motivated pork, such as the bridge to nowhere (which he supported in the Senate).  Well, unknowingly, Obama has made a strong case for transferring surface transportation funding, and its accompanying revenue source; the gasoline tax, back to the states.

The Highway Trust Fund was established in 1956 to fund the Interstate Highway System.  The fund, which is administered by the DOT’s Federal Highway Administration, has been purveyed by the federal gasoline tax, which now stands at 18.4 cents per gallon (24.4 for diesel fuel).  Beginning in 1983, Congress began siphoning off some of the gas tax revenue for the great liberal sacred cow; the urban mass transit system.  Today, mass transit receives $10.2 billion in annual appropriations.  Additionally, funding is misallocated for all sorts of local pork projects, such as bike paths and roadside flowers.

This inevitable cycle of federal government mission creep has led to the depletion of the Highway Trust Fund in recent years.  Much like the so-called Social Security Trust Fund, Congress is forced to fund its assortment of profligate and superfluous transportation projects with general fund revenues because gasoline tax revenues are insufficient.  In 2008, the trust fund was completely depleted, impelling Congress to replenish the fund with an additional $35 billion over the past few years.

Ray LaHood Does Not Have Blank Check to Grant Waivers for EAS Program

Earlier this month, Senate Democrats brazenly forced a two-week partial shutdown of the FAA.  They were willing to hold 4,000 employees hostage and forgo millions in revenue from airline tickets, all for the purpose of securing their inveterate pork projects.  Democrats refused to pass the House extension bill because Republicans inserted minor limits on a rural pork program, better known as Essential Air Service (EAS).  They also blocked the bill because of an anti-labor provision that never existed in this stopgap bill.

The House-passed bill had two provisions to limit EAS: 1) It established a $1,000-per-ticket subsidy cap, which affects subsidized service at three airports.  2)  The extension eliminated subsidies for service to airports that are 90 miles or less from a large or medium hub airport.  This provision affects ten locations.

Originally, Harry Reid opposed the bill because his airport in Ely, Nevada, which enjoys a $3,720 per passenger subsidy, would be cut off under the first provision.  However, two weeks later, Reid admitted that "$3,500 per passenger is a little extreme," and was ready to pass the bill by unanimous consent.  A few hours later, Reid seemed to have amnesia of his earlier statement, and continued to block the bill on behalf of his colleague, John Rockefeller.  You see, Morgantown Municipal Airport, which enjoys a $1.5 million annual subsidy, is 75 miles away from the nearest medium hub airport in Pittsburgh.  As such, it would have suffered a cut under the second provision of the bill.  Rockefeller, the post-Byrd king of pork, was having none of that.

Finally, Rockefeller and Reid agreed to pass the House bill because they discovered language in the bill that grants the Secretary of Transportation authority to waive the restriction on subsidies for those within 90 miles of larger airports.  They were clearly anticipating that Secretary Ray LaHood, who used to be a Republican, would completely vitiate the intent of the bill.

There is only one problem: LaHood does not have a blank check to grant those waivers.  Pursuant to the text of the bill, the Secretary may grant a waiver only to those airports in which "geographic characteristics of the location result in undue difficulty in accessing the nearest medium or large hub airport."

Democrats Threaten FAA Shutdown Over Rural Pork

Democrats support partial gov't shutdowns when it suits them


Amidst the circus surrounding the looming debt ceiling deadline, there is another deadline that is coming due tonight at midnight; funding for the FAA.  The Democrats in the Senate are obdurately refusing to pass either a short-term or long-term extension of the FAA reauthorization, threatening to furlough 4,000 precious union workers beginning Saturday.  Their rationale?  Saving Harry Reid’s rural pork.

Much like highway and surface transportation expenditures, the FAA is typically funded by long-term authorization bills that allocate funding for four years at a time.  The funding comes from taxes on airplane passengers, cargo, and jet fuel. However, as with the highway funding, the Democrat majorities from 2007-present have failed to pass a long-term bill.  The most incompetent majority party in American history has relied upon 20 short-term extension bills to fund the FAA over the past four years.  A short-term bill is their preferred method because it locks in all the wasteful spending and avoids the scrutiny that is endemic of long-term extension bills.

When Republicans took over the House, they passed a long-term bill to reauthorize the FAA until FY 2014.  Not surprisingly, Democrats balked at the modest spending cuts and forced the passage of several more clean clean short-term extension.  On Wednesday, the House passed another short-term extension funding the FAA through September 16 (the House must act first because the bill raises revenue) to preclude a shutdown Friday night.  However, frustrated from Democrats’ stubborn opposition to spending cuts, House Republicans inserted a provision that offers modest cuts to the Essential Air Service (EAS).  The EAS is essentially a rural pork program that subsidizes airlines to provide service to communities where such service, due to geography and population, would otherwise be unprofitable.

Time to End Bipartisan Profligacy of Transportation Spending

One of the preferred methods liberals use to tax and spend is to create special "trust funds" for particular expenditures, with the intent of hiding the funds within the Treasury's general fund.  The system goes something like this: levy a tax that is supposedly earmarked for a specific expense and impounded in a trust fund (lock box); gradually purloin the fund by using it for general expenditures, while using general fund monies (and debt) to overspend on the trust fund expenditures; demand that taxpayers contribute more to the trust fund that has gone broke.  This is ostensibly what has happened with the Social Security Trust Fund.  It's also what Big Business and Big Labor desire to do with the Highway Trust Fund, which was modeled after the SS fund.

The Highway Trust Fund, much like the SS Trust Fund, is maintained by money from the general treasury that is credited to the fund.  It was established in the '50s to fund the Interstate Highway System.  Beginning in 1983, Congress began siphoning off some of the gas tax revenue for the great inviolable sacred cow; the urban mass transit system.  Today, mass transit receives $10.2 billion in annual appropriations.

The extent of the credit from the general treasury was supposed to be commensurate to the revenue generated by the gas tax, paid by all motorists and users of the highway system.  Not surprisingly, the demarcation between revenue sources became muddled over the years, and as pork barrel spending grew ubiquitously among our esteemed leaders, the funding authorized for the trust fund far outpaced the revenue from the gas tax.  In 2008, the trust fund was completely depleted, compelling Congress to replenish the fund with an additional $35 billion over the past few years.

The authorization for funding the Highway Trust Fund is typically renewed every six years in a transportation reauthorization bill that creates six years' worth of mandatory spending that is not subject to the annual appropriations process.  The Department of Transportation then takes this money and doles it out to the states.  States with more aggressive porkers inevitably receive more funding.  These bills were always bipartisan endeavors of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, as both parties enjoyed unlimited pork and goodwill with their constituents.

The 2010 elections and the Tea Party changed all that.

The Earmark Eight, and the Food Fifteen

Everyone is busy analyzing what the Democrats have learned from the midterm elections.  The real question is what Republicans have learned from this election.  Within 25 minutes, 8 Republicans voted to continue the practice of pork barrel spending, while 15 voted to give the FDA unlimited power to shut down food producers and cut jobs.

Here is a list of the 8 Republicans who voted against the Coburn AMDT. to S.510 (S. AMDT. 4697), which would have placed a moratorium on earmarks.

Bennett (R-UT)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Inhofe (R-OK)Lugar (R-IN)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Shelby (R-AL)
Voinovich (R-OH)

Here is a list of those 15 Republicans who supported the unconstitutional, food-Nazi, job killing bill. (S.510)

Alexander (R-TN)
Brown (R-MA)
Burr (R-NC)
Collins (R-ME)
Enzi (R-WY)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Johanns (R-NE)
Kirk (R-IL)
LeMieux (R-FL)
Lugar (R-IN)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Snowe (R-ME)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)

The amazing thing about both lists is that they include so many names from ruby red states like Utah, Mississippi, Alabama, Indiana, Wyoming, etc.  Is this the best that we can do from such conservative states?  Do the Democrats elect Senators from deep blue states Vermont and California who vote with conservatives?  Also, it is interesting to note that Mark Kirk has wasted no time in joining the Senate and voting with the Dems.  And as we predicted, Joe Manchin has voted with the Democrat leadership every single time!  With friends like these who needs enemies?

Update:  Here is a synopsis of the food bill from Fox News.  If this is not a socialist, job killing bill, then I don't know what is.  

• Gives the FDA long-sought power to force a company to recall foods believed to be contaminated and to impose fees on those companies under a mandatory recall.
• Authorizes the FDA to impose new fees for reinspecting those facilities and for registering food importers.
• Requires FDA to inspect registered domestic “high risk” food producers (as defined by HHS – parent of FDA) at least once five years after passage of the bill.
• Requires food processors, growers, and importers to meet additional safety requirements for high-risk foods and to meet new safety and security rules for the importation of food.
• Requires companies to turn over test results and other records to federal officials on domestic or imported food items believed to be contaminated.
• Requires imported food suppliers to meet established food safety requirements with a certification.
• Requires food processors to impose and monitor food safety systems.

Maryland Democrats Love their Pork, Even for Illegals

If you travel on Maryland highways, and wonder why you encounter random construction every few miles, look no farther than Maryland's two Senators for the source of the prodigal and costly juggernauts.  Yesterday, the Baltimore Sun published an article lamenting the fact that a GOP moratorium on earmarks will severely effect Maryland's share of the public lard.  They also reveal that Barbara Mikulski is one of the most prolific porkers in the Senate, hauling in over $50 million in pork for FY 2011.  Junior Senator Ben Cardin is quickly catching up, while some of Maryland's congressmen like Dutch Rupersberger are willing to fight to the death to defend their raiding of the public trough.

Anyone who travels on Maryland's interstate highways and major byways can attest to the fact that there is construction everywhere.  Most of the construction sites are on roads that have recently been paved and appear to be nothing more than wasted money.  What about the lost revenue and productivity due to unwarranted traffic jams?  Tough luck!  That's what you get in a one party state, in which its congressional delegation includes a member on the Senate Approps Committee (Mikulski), House Approps Committee (Rupersperger), a House Leader (Steny Hoyer), and House campaign chief (Chris Van Hollen).

As if the highway pork is not enough, Mikulski plans to earmark $750,000 for the criminal organization, Casa de Maryland.  Keep in mind that these illegal alien smugglers already secure over $1 million in state funding.  Maybe we should open an organization involved in slave trading and ask congress for some bacon to fund its operations.  After all, as long as it's a Democrat who advocates for the criminal behavior, they won't face electoral reprisal in the state of Maryland.  In fact, if Democrats have their way, the criminals will be voting in our state elections.