Porking out with your money

The Washington Times ^ | 07/19/2017 | Cal Thomas

[ForYourChildren]

The annual ‘Pig Book’ turns a spotlight on congressional earmarks!

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to eliminate governmental waste and fraud, just released its “2017 Congressional Pig Book,” an annual publication highlighting wasteful government spending that should embarrass each and every member of Congress.

While it is true that most government spending is for “entitlements” and other fixed costs, the “Pig Book” properly ridicules politicians who waste significant amounts of money on questionable programs.

In 2011, Congress promised to go on the wagon when it came to pork. That didn’t last long because pork to politicians is like blood to a vampire.

Members promised to swear off earmarks, which is spending attached to bills that don’t go through the appropriations process. As CAGW notes, despite that supposed moratorium, earmarks keep showing up in numerous bills. The “Pig Book” exposes 163 earmarks in the fiscal 2017 budget, an increase of 32.5 percent from 123 in fiscal 2016.

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[ForYourChildren]

Here is your copy of the annual Pig Book Summary

“2017 Congressional Pig Book Summary”

https://www.cagw.org/sites/default/files/pdf/2017_Congressional_Pig_Book_Web_Version.pdf

[ForYourChildren]

The cost of earmarks in FY 2017

$6.8 billion