CAGW celebrates “Festivus”. Airing of Grievances and Feats of Strength.

(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today marked its third annual celebration of Festivus to acknowledge the disappointments and successes for taxpayers in 2006.  In the sitcom Seinfeld, Festivus is a fictional holiday invented by Frank Costanza to protest the commercialization of other December holidays.  The Festivus dinner begins with the Airing of Grievances, where the celebrant tells family and friends all the ways they have disappointed him or her over the past year.  Similarly, CAGW will now tell politicians all they ways they have disappointed taxpayers over the past year.  Festivus is not considered over until the head of the family has been pinned by another participant in the Feats of Strength.  Likewise, CAGW will end Festivus by recognizing the times taxpayers triumphed over Washington’s big spenders.

The Airing of Grievances

Pork:  CAGW’s 2006 Congressional Pig Book identified 9,963 pork projects costing a record $29 billion in the 11 fiscal 2006 appropriations bills, including $1,000,000 for the Waterfree Urinal Conservation Initiative and $500,000 for the Sparta Teapot Museum in Sparta, N.C.  Former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif) is serving an eight-year jail sentence for taking $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for earmarks.  Other members of Congress are being investigated for allegedly profiting from earmarks and for directing earmarks to campaign contributors, including outgoing House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) and incoming subcommittee chairman Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.).  In the face of these scandals and abuses, the 109th Congress failed to enact substantial earmark reform and later rejected a bill to require defense earmarks to be reviewed and graded.

NASA Moon Base:  On December 4, NASA announced plans to create a base on the moon, but NASA’s history of big-ticket boondoggles casts doubt on the project’s feasibility and affordability.  The agency routinely fails audits and can’t keep track of its inventory.  A July 2006 Government Accountability Office report described NASA’s cost estimates as “unreasonable” and “inadequate.”  The Big Government approach to space exploration has failed; it’s time for the NASA to step aside and let the private sector take the lead.  Some have suggested moving Congress to the moon.

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Feats of Strength

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Database Bill:  The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (S. 2590), introduced by Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and signed into law by the President, requires the Office of Management and Budget to establish a single public website listing the names and locations of all individuals and groups receiving federal grants and contracts.  The legislation was brought for a vote after a successful grassroots Internet campaign unmasked Sens. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) as the lawmakers who placed anonymous legislative “holds” on the bill.

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2007 “Pork Diet”:  Sens. Coburn, Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) were instrumental in forcing Congress to drop plans for a fiscal 2007 omnibus appropriations bill stuffed with more than 10,000 earmarks costing $17 billion.  Incoming House and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairmen David Obey (D-Wis.) and Robert Byrd announced a joint resolution for the remainder of fiscal 2007 and a moratorium on earmarks until budget reforms are passed.  President Bush repeated the call for earmark reform and revealed plans to work with Congress to enact a series of reforms.  

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Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement, and abuse in government.