These people cannot help themselves. It is not their money, so what is the problem? They are spending more than we have and more than we will make. So what? It is not theirs, and it isn’t even real. When you are talking trillions of dollars, it is just a game. Nothing is real.
Articles tagged as
Earmarks
Obama Fail Spotlight: I Will Go Line By Line to Remove Wasteful Earmarks…
If you missed this post, there is a link to a blog that is compiling 1001 reasons to vote against Obama. There are at least 600 reasons so far. But as I reviewed the first 100, which I included in my linked post, I came across a classic Obamaism that deserved special attention.
The promise to go line by line through legislation before signing it, to remove wasteful earmarks. Of course his first major piece of spending legislation was the stimulus, and what wasn’t for public sector union bailouts was wasteful earmarks.
So Mr. Obama was either lying or he is not very good at reading legislation (A common problem for Democrats, or so I hear).
“Candidate Barack Obama publicly promises to go “line by line” through legislation to remove wasteful earmarks.”
- Obama stimulus gave $200,000 to teach Siberian lawmakers how to engage Russian policy makers in Moscow.
- Stimulus funding of $250,000 went to bug storage for an insect museum at North Carolina State University that gets 44 visitors a year.
- Gave $500,000 to put microchips in recycling bins to check up on the recycling efforts of senior citizens.
- $5 million to create a geothermal energy system for the Oak Ridge City Center shopping mall in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
- $9.38 million to renovate a century-old train depot in Lancaster County, Pa., that has not been used for three decades.
So, our two NH based US Senators had the chance to vote on getting rid of earmarks; how’d they do?
Yeah, pretty much as expected: when voting on an amendment that would have banned earmarks (and hopefully, the corruption and self-serving pandering that often comes from it), we had a disparity in voting from our two US Senators. As far as I am concerned, earmarks are nothing but giveaways to the politically connected. Beseech a … Read more
NH Wind Farm Project Comes With Inside Deal Making?
There is a major Wind farm project underway in Coos county. The principle players are GraniteWind, which is owned by Brookfield Renewable Power and a company called Freshet Wind Energy. (more on them in a moment)
Brookfield has gotten press recently because Brookfield Properties (same company) owns Zucotti Park where the #OWS hippies are hanging out. Mayor Bloomberg girlfriend sits on Brookfield’s board, and George Soros and some other big Democrat Donors are heavily invested in Brookfield, which has just received a $168 million dollar Federal Green energy loan for the New Hampshire Wind farm project courtesy of the US Department of Energy, which was lobbied by the firm run by Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.
Just about everyone is short stroking that set of circumstances, and it is far too convenient to seem like a random coincidence, but there is a New Hampshire connection that is far more interesting if you just take the time to dig a little bit deeper.
Jeanne Shaheen: “Porking” Those Tax Increases Down Our Throats
“If Thomas Jefferson thought taxation without representation was bad, he should see how it is with representation …” —Rush Limbaugh
Today’s Union Leader Editorial, entitled, “Free Cops!” points once again to the ills of having a big-government Democrat like Jeanne Shaheen serving the Granite State in the U.S. Senate. Like her liberal counterpart, former Congressperson Carol Shea-Porter, Shaheen brings home the bacon … To wit: a $1.4 million federal grant to pay for six new police officers; Providing four for Manchester and one each for Pelham and Claremont.
Not a new scheme at all. During the Clinton years we see how well it worked here in the Queen city the last time the Federal Nanny doled out money for cops. And as always, there is an end on the horizon for that funding which only segues the bitter fiscal fight also on the horizon. Police administrators, Union hacks and those in city government with a shameless fealty for tax and spend policies to keep those positions, will seek to have them funded on the backs of local taxpayers. Epic Fail. This latest grant is a mere redux of the same scheme.
Senator Shaheen is the epitome a big-government liberal. She does not respect local government, nor the people who elected her. This is a clear second example of such in just a few short months where Shaheen advocated for the Feds to contract locally with Planned Parenthood in the wake of the Executive Council’s vote not to fund Planned Parenthood services in the Granite State. Now she gives Manchester government a back-handed slap.
Paul Hodes – Lobbyist?
The Concord Monitor is reporting that Paul Hodes has started a business consultancy. This will have him back and forth to Washington DC for the purpose of connecting northern New England to Washington DC; a lateral move from his role as congressman when he was trying to sign New Hampshire away to Washington DC.
Progressive Flatulence
So maybe the 700,000 taxpayer dollars given to UNH to advance the study of “organic farming” was not just a left wing exercise in global warming alarmist advocacy. Maybe, just maybe, it was not meant to study cow farts.
Judd Gregg Has 13 Earmarks; Shaheen…32
Following on the heels of Tim’s post about the tone deafness of the Senate (just scroll down) and the massive trillion dollar (that’s $1,000,000,000,000.00) case of bi-partisan domestic spending abuse known as the Omnibus, I thought you might like to see the list of Senators who are still abusing the "privilege" of adding earmarks even though the populace has made it clear we no longer want legislators doing that.
Tone deaf Shaheen has 32, and soon to be former (and apparently not soon enough) Senator Judd Gregg has 13. I don’t have the specific allocations, just name, party and number of requests and there is no shortage of abuse from either party. (H/T to Jamie Dupree and ajc)
(On the jump)
The Invertebrate Jeanne Shaheen?
So did Jeanne Shaheen vote for cloture on the Reid’s Frankenstein tax compromise and will she vote to pass it? I ask because it includes Billions for a one year extension of ethanol subsidies that Senator Shaheen just insisted we could not afford.
Congressman-Elect Frank Guinta’s statement on the Republican’s Caucus Vote on Earmark Moratorium
November 18th, 2010 Washington D.C. – Congressman-elect Frank Guinta (R-NH) issued the following statement on his support of the Republican Caucus’ vote to implement an earmark moratorium for two years. Guinta made cutting spending and government transparency hallmarks of his campaign and will work tirelessly to see these principles implemented in Congress. “The earmark process … Read more
[Updated] Why You Should Contact Senator Mitch McConnell
[ UPDATED Senator McConnell has officially come out against earmarks:“Today, I am announcing that I will join the Republican leadership in the House in support of a moratorium on earmarks in the 112th Congress,” he said].
Original post
Senator Mitch McConnell (R- KY) is said to be working to undermine an effort at banning earmarks in the US Senate. This is not surprising. Senators, as a rule, abuse the privilege more. And while appropriations of this nature amount to a fraction of the total budget, it is an impressive fraction that rarely serves the interests of anyone more than the Seantor themselves.
Was it Carol Shea-Porter, 2012 congressional candidate in waiting who said that earmarks are necessary so that the state can get back it’s fair share of the federal taxes it’s residents pay? Or was that Hodes? Does it matter? Sure, congressman abuse them as well, even those who swear they have sworn them off.
Hodes Dogs of Hypocrisy
For 2010, before "discovering" that he was against earmarks in an election year, Paul Hodes, democrat congressman and candidate for the US Senate requested over 51,000,000.00 million in appropriations. That earned him the distinction of being ranked the 45th highest earmarker in the entire House of Representatives for 2010. That’s 45 out of 435 in … Read more
Hodespocrisy–The Tale of Dirty Dick
Dick Durbin, or Dirty Dick as we like to call him around the shop, is a prominent Senator from Illinois and another $10,000.00 donor to Paul Hodes. Durbin has all the standard conflicts with the "New and Improved Hodes–With extra Hypocritical Action!, and coming in at 685 million in earmark requests since fiscal year 2008 (117 million in 2010), dirty Dick should fit nicely into Paul’s stated mission to end earmark abuse in congress.
You’d think that soon to be private citizen Hodes would be concerned that all of his major donors are pork addicts. Simply taking money from them violates his earmark parole, but since when did integrity have anything to do with it. It’s clearly about saying whatever it takes to get re-elected.
So what else is so special about Durbin?
Democrats “Deem” Next Years Budget In Late Night Vote
According to Human Events late last night the Democrat majority Congress attached a document which ‘Deemed as passed’ a 1.12 trillion dollar budget. The document was attached to the War supplemental bill and approved on partisan lines (despite bi-partisan objection) 215-210. It will come as no surprise to New Hampshire residents that Both Paul … Read more