Airman Kelvin Brown cleans the canopy of an F/A-18C Hornet assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 195 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk , April 21, 2008. Brown, a plane captain, is in charge of performing maintenance on an aircraft once it has landed.
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Pork barrel spending exceeds $17 billion
By: SGT News | Submitted on: 05/05/08SOUTHERN ARIZONA (SGT NEWS) - Pork barrel spending has contributed to more than $17 billion in government waste, according to a new booklet released last month by “Citizens Against Government Waste”, a non-profit organization that exposes waste and mismanagement within the federal government.
In total, Congress passed more than 11,600 pet projects, which happens to be the second largest total that CAGW has recorded. The total waste for those projects has skyrocketed to a whopping $17.2 billion, a huge 30-percent increase over last year.
The biggest offenders are members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Republican Thad Cochran, Republican Ted Stevens and Republican Richard Shelby.
Examples of the wasteful spending highlighted in the booklet include $3 million for The First Tee program, more than $1.9 million for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service, $211,509 for olive fruit fly research in Paris, France and nearly $149,000 for the Montana Sheep Institute.
Thad Cochran spent more than $15 million on 17 projects, including $3,723,750 for a Natural Products Lab; $2,780,400 for the Jamie Whitten Delta States Research Center; $1,075,419 for the Agricultural Wildlife Conservation Center; $849,015 for genomics for southern crop stress and disease research; $511,395 for biotechnology research; and $229,383 for rural systems research.
Democrat Robert Byrd claimed just shy of $12 million for 12 projects, including $3,829,008 for the Lost River Watershed Project; $3,226,257 for the GIS Center of Excellence; $1,529,220 for the Appalachian Fruit Lab; $521,325 for aquaculture product and marketing development; and $112,209 for feed efficiency research.
Republican Mitch McConnell grabbed over $6 million and spent $2,085,300 for the Forage-Animal Production Research Facility; $627,576 for health education leadership; $559,059 for new crop opportunities; and $502,458 for precision agriculture.
Richard Shelby marked an astounding $146,708,000 for projects like the Marshall Space Flight Center, American Village Citizenship Trust Montevallo for character programs in at-risk areas, Foley Police Department for communications upgrades and West Alabama Marine Shrimp and Fish Aquaculture.
Democrat Daniel Inouye spent $5 million on the Maui High Performance Computing Center and $3.5 million for Army conservation and ecosystem management.
For the full list of outrageous government expenditures with your tax dollars, visit the Citizens Against Government Waste web site booklet page, at:
http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reports_pigbook2008
In total, Congress passed more than 11,600 pet projects, which happens to be the second largest total that CAGW has recorded. The total waste for those projects has skyrocketed to a whopping $17.2 billion, a huge 30-percent increase over last year.
The biggest offenders are members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Republican Thad Cochran, Republican Ted Stevens and Republican Richard Shelby.
Examples of the wasteful spending highlighted in the booklet include $3 million for The First Tee program, more than $1.9 million for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service, $211,509 for olive fruit fly research in Paris, France and nearly $149,000 for the Montana Sheep Institute.
Thad Cochran spent more than $15 million on 17 projects, including $3,723,750 for a Natural Products Lab; $2,780,400 for the Jamie Whitten Delta States Research Center; $1,075,419 for the Agricultural Wildlife Conservation Center; $849,015 for genomics for southern crop stress and disease research; $511,395 for biotechnology research; and $229,383 for rural systems research.
Democrat Robert Byrd claimed just shy of $12 million for 12 projects, including $3,829,008 for the Lost River Watershed Project; $3,226,257 for the GIS Center of Excellence; $1,529,220 for the Appalachian Fruit Lab; $521,325 for aquaculture product and marketing development; and $112,209 for feed efficiency research.
Republican Mitch McConnell grabbed over $6 million and spent $2,085,300 for the Forage-Animal Production Research Facility; $627,576 for health education leadership; $559,059 for new crop opportunities; and $502,458 for precision agriculture.
Richard Shelby marked an astounding $146,708,000 for projects like the Marshall Space Flight Center, American Village Citizenship Trust Montevallo for character programs in at-risk areas, Foley Police Department for communications upgrades and West Alabama Marine Shrimp and Fish Aquaculture.
Democrat Daniel Inouye spent $5 million on the Maui High Performance Computing Center and $3.5 million for Army conservation and ecosystem management.
For the full list of outrageous government expenditures with your tax dollars, visit the Citizens Against Government Waste web site booklet page, at:
http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reports_pigbook2008
In-house Small Government Times news writers
