H
Harry Hope
Guest
About 9,000 earmarks costing $7.4 billion found their way into the
final spending measure.
Stevens and Cochran retain their earmarking clout even in the
minority.
Cochran sponsored $773 million in current earmarks, while Stevens
claimed $502 million, according to the Taxpayers for Common Sense
unofficial tally.
...................................................................................................
Stevens, 84, has funneled billions of dollars to Alaska over the
years, winning loyalty from voters, scorn from editorial pages and
scrutiny from federal prosecutors.
He is perhaps best known for defending a colleague's $398 million
project, dubbed "the bridge to nowhere" because it served a remote
Alaskan island.
State officials eventually decided the bridge really was going
nowhere, officially abandoning the project in September.
Among this year's Stevens earmarks is nearly $3.5 million for the
Alaska SeaLife Center, one of his favorite projects.
Federal investigators are looking into the center's activities, which
have included purchases of land that belonged to a company owned by a
former Stevens Senate aide.
Stevens spokesman Aaron Saunders declined to address the Sealife
Center earmark specifically.
But he said Stevens is proud to have steered federal help to his
sprawling state, where travel is especially difficult.
"He has obviously demonstrated how unique Alaska's needs are,"
Saunders said, "and Congress has responded."
Whereas Stevens is brash and combative, Cochran is quiet and courtly
-- but no less effective in shipping billions of public dollars to his
lightly populated state.
From The Associated Press, 12/20/07:
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-congress-pet-projects,0,2226461.story
Criticisms Don't Slow GOP Pork Projects
By CHARLES BABINGTON | Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON -
The demise of the bridge to nowhere notwithstanding, Sen. Ted Stevens
and other Republicans remain the kings of pork-barrel spending,
proving that GOP mastery of "earmarks" can withstand public scorn, a
president's rebuke and even a Democratic takeover of Congress.
The Senate's two biggest sponsors of this year's pet spending projects
are Republicans Stevens of Alaska and Thad Cochran of Mississippi,
according to preliminary reviews of fiscal 2008 spending bills by
Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan group.
Two of the House's three biggest claimants of earmarks also are
Republicans: Bill Young of Florida and Jerry Lewis of California, the
group found.
Their continued success at steering billions of taxpayer dollars to
their constituents is all the more impressive -- or arguably
hypocritical -- since President Bush and other prominent Republicans
sharpened their criticisms of earmarks after Democrats took over the
House and Senate majorities in January.
It underscores the cozy and murky nature of appropriating, in which
longtime friendships and mutual back-scratching seem to trump the
steely partisanship seen elsewhere in Congress.
_______________________________________________
Borrow and Spend Republicans are pissing taxpayer money away like
drunken sailors
Harry
final spending measure.
Stevens and Cochran retain their earmarking clout even in the
minority.
Cochran sponsored $773 million in current earmarks, while Stevens
claimed $502 million, according to the Taxpayers for Common Sense
unofficial tally.
...................................................................................................
Stevens, 84, has funneled billions of dollars to Alaska over the
years, winning loyalty from voters, scorn from editorial pages and
scrutiny from federal prosecutors.
He is perhaps best known for defending a colleague's $398 million
project, dubbed "the bridge to nowhere" because it served a remote
Alaskan island.
State officials eventually decided the bridge really was going
nowhere, officially abandoning the project in September.
Among this year's Stevens earmarks is nearly $3.5 million for the
Alaska SeaLife Center, one of his favorite projects.
Federal investigators are looking into the center's activities, which
have included purchases of land that belonged to a company owned by a
former Stevens Senate aide.
Stevens spokesman Aaron Saunders declined to address the Sealife
Center earmark specifically.
But he said Stevens is proud to have steered federal help to his
sprawling state, where travel is especially difficult.
"He has obviously demonstrated how unique Alaska's needs are,"
Saunders said, "and Congress has responded."
Whereas Stevens is brash and combative, Cochran is quiet and courtly
-- but no less effective in shipping billions of public dollars to his
lightly populated state.
From The Associated Press, 12/20/07:
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-congress-pet-projects,0,2226461.story
Criticisms Don't Slow GOP Pork Projects
By CHARLES BABINGTON | Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON -
The demise of the bridge to nowhere notwithstanding, Sen. Ted Stevens
and other Republicans remain the kings of pork-barrel spending,
proving that GOP mastery of "earmarks" can withstand public scorn, a
president's rebuke and even a Democratic takeover of Congress.
The Senate's two biggest sponsors of this year's pet spending projects
are Republicans Stevens of Alaska and Thad Cochran of Mississippi,
according to preliminary reviews of fiscal 2008 spending bills by
Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan group.
Two of the House's three biggest claimants of earmarks also are
Republicans: Bill Young of Florida and Jerry Lewis of California, the
group found.
Their continued success at steering billions of taxpayer dollars to
their constituents is all the more impressive -- or arguably
hypocritical -- since President Bush and other prominent Republicans
sharpened their criticisms of earmarks after Democrats took over the
House and Senate majorities in January.
It underscores the cozy and murky nature of appropriating, in which
longtime friendships and mutual back-scratching seem to trump the
steely partisanship seen elsewhere in Congress.
_______________________________________________
Borrow and Spend Republicans are pissing taxpayer money away like
drunken sailors
Harry