Your Tax Dollars At Work

State Senator Vincent J. Fumo, the South Philadelphia Democrat, wields a big political stick.

He came out strongly against the House version of Fat Eddie's request for a tax hike.

He said there was way too much pork in it. He ought to know. Vince Baby ran up $72,525 in dinner bills at the veddy veddy high-priced La Veranda Ristorante where diners get a romantic view of the Delaware.

It took him two years to spend $72,525. How much did you spend on food over the last two years, Mom?

U.S. Representatives Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) and Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) dispatched a heated letter to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority after reading ads which the taxpayers paid for in the Washington public transit system: "Enjoy Better Sex: Legalize and Tax Marijuana!"

In July, the House narrowly rejected a bill offered by Rep. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.). It would have done away with tax dollars for some of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) sex projects which include a $147,000 grant for a Northwestern University study that paid women to watch pornography.

How many of you know that our congresspeople only have to be in Congress one time to receive a pension that is over $15,000 a month?

Our congresspeople also do not receive Social Security on retirement because they didn't have to pay into the system.

Many years ago they came up with their own benefit plan. No congressperson has ever felt the need to change it. The plan works like this:

When our congressspeople retire, they continue to draw the same pay -- with cost of living increases -- until they die.

Some of our congresspeople may expect to draw $7,800,000. This plan costs them nothing. The funds for their retirement plan come right out of the General Fund. You and I pay for it.

Our own Social Security Plan -- yours and mine -- will average out to about $1,000 a month when we retire.

Our Social Security plan could be improved immediately if only one small change were made. That would be to get rid of our congresspeople's retirement plan and put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us.

Here are a few of my favorites from the federal pigs at the trough -

$500,000 added in conference for the First Tee Program. Its mission is to "impact the lives of young people around the world by creating affordable and accessible golf facilities to primarily serve those who have not previously had exposure to the game and its positive values."

$25,000,000 added by the House for the International Fund for Ireland (IFI) in support of the Anglo-Irish Accord. This U.S. contribution to the fund is to be spent on "those projects that hold the greatest potential for job creation and equal opportunity for the Irish people."

Such projects have included building a replica of the Jeanie Johnson (a Canadian ship that once ferried famine victims across the Atlantic), a national water sports center used for coaching top-level athletes, golf videos, and exporting sweaters.

$800,000 added in conference for the GRAMMY Foundation in Santa Monica, California for music and arts education.

$2,000,000 for the Open World Leadership Center. This program, previously called the Russian Leadership Development Fund, received $8,000,000 in fiscal 2002. Past uses of this fund include flying Russian political, business and community leaders to the United States to visit the Festival Flea Market in Florida and a swing dance.

$750,000 added by the House for hovercraft development in Toledo, Ohio, in the district of House appropriator Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio).

http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reports_pigbook2003

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