Free Republic

On June 10, the House Appropriations Committee made clear the way many on Capitol Hill view national defense. By a raised-hands vote of 13 to 23, the Committee rejected an amendment from Congressman Jack Kingston—a Georgia Republican—to redirect $339 million from operation and maintenance funds, deemed excess, to retain 234 A-10 close air support aircraft in the U.S. Air Force inventory. Even though the committee found $1.6 billion to increase the Obama Administration’s budget to buy hardware, it could not find a penny to retain one of the most extraordinarily effective weapons in the U.S. arsenal—and one of the cheapest...

… The bill will cost nearly a trillion dollars over ten years. But, considering the bill itself is 702 pages long, the bill will cost about $1.4 billion per page. If that doesn’t garner the attention of taxpayers, there was something else that bothered at least one member of the House today—how settling on cutting $8 billion of waste could be a called “compromise” between a $40 billion House cut and a $4 billion Senate cut. …

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have plans to spend up to $18 million over the next five years to develop “reliable” climate change predictions for the next few decades. The “funding opportunity enables interagency cooperation on one of the most pressing problems of the millennium: climate change and how it is likely to affect our world,” according to NSF’s official request for bids. … Current methods of predicting future climate change have proved to be wildly inaccurate. For example, none of the 73 computer models used by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) asked why reporters were making an issue out of the additional spending that was added to the continuing resolution that re-opened the federal government and increased the debt limit. “What difference does it make? Why are we talking about this? We’re talking about a bill that as I said last night, I’m not asking anybody to vote for this bill on the merits,” Pelosi said. …

Bridges for field mice, a disastrously over-budget philharmonic hall and a cycle path that stops in the middle of nowhere—a list published on Thursday reveals the bizarre ways in which the government has wasted German taxpayers’ money. The so-called “Black Book”, compiled by the German Taxpayers’ Alliance, lists the many and diverse ways where the state has spent billions of euros of public finances through poorly planned, questionable and absurd projects. The body’s head, Rainer Holznagel said: “Germany is richer than ever before. But far too much of our hard-earned money is not being spent efficiently.” … Most expensive of...

“The Pig Cafeteria” was an exhibit produced by the Department of Agriculture to educate farmers about new methods of farming and raising livestock — specifically, what to feed pigs so that they would be healthy and profitable.

The Internal Revenue Service, already under fire after officials disclosed that the agency targeted conservative groups, faces increased scrutiny because of an inspector general’s report that it spent about $50 million to hold at least 220 conferences for employees between 2010 and 2012.The report by the Treasury Department’s inspector general about conference spending is set to be released Tuesday. The department issued a statement Sunday saying the administration “has already taken aggressive and dramatic action to reduce conference spending.” The White House and the agency were on the defensive before the report on conference spending. Agency officials and the Obama...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three months after Superstorm Sandy ravaged coastal areas in much of the Northeast, Congress on Monday sent a $50.5 billion emergency relief measure for storm victims to President Barack Obama for his signature. "I commend Congress for giving families and businesses the help they deserve, and I will sign this bill into law as soon as it hits my desk," Obama said in a statement late Monday. Despite opposition from conservatives concerned about adding billions of dollars more to the nation's debt, the Senate cleared the long-delayed bill, 62-36, after House Republicans had stripped it earlier this...

EARMARKS $129,859,196,359 This is a short outline describing only one method, only one very small portion of the vast Federal Budget, that elected officials use, with impunity, to TRANSFER WEALTH from hard working citizens, like you, to UNDESERVING PATRONAGE GROUPS. Or, to put it in other terms, they STEAL your money and BUY LOYALTY and VOTES so they can stay in office and power. Or to put it yet another way, THEY APPROPRIATE THE MONEY YOU WORKED YOUR ASS OFF TO EARN AND RE-DISTRIBUTE IT IN A MORE “FAIR” WAY. Don’t forget they are SMARTER than you and know how...

Critics have called it the train to nowhere and a $98 billion boondoggle. As concerns mount over the practicality and affordability of California's plan to build a high-speed rail system, even many former supporters are beginning to sound skeptical. Not so Gov. Jerry Brown. He has emerged as the most vocal cheerleader of a project that is as risky as it is ambitious. Building a first-in-the-nation project would provide a lasting legacy for the 73-year-old Democratic governor as he moves into the twilight of a long political career. His father is revered for promoting the construction of California's comprehensive water...

When Newt Gingrich says he never lobbied, he's not telling the truth. When he was a paid consultant for the drug-industry's lobby group, Gingrich worked hard to persuade Republican congressmen to vote for the Medicare drug subsidy that the industry favored. To deny Gingrich was a lobbyist requires an Obama-like word parsing over who is and who isn't a lobbyist. Gingrich stated last week on Fox News, "I do no lobbying of any kind. I never have. A very important point to make. I have never done lobbying of any kind." But the facts contradict that claim. First of all,...

Three marriages. Two divorces. Add up the numbers, and Newt Gingrich is an improbable candidate to win over the influential social-conservative bloc in the GOP. But in this unconventional cycle, both national and early-primary-state evangelical and social-conservative leaders are signaling that Gingrich’s personal history is no insurmountable obstacle, although some would like to see him further address his past decisions. “In general, I think people who have experienced the ultimate form of forgiveness themselves are willing to extend mercy and extend forgiveness to others,” says Ralph Reed, founder and chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. “In Newt’s case, he’s...

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is stepping up his defense of his lucrative consulting career, in part by arguing that he didn’t do very much to earn all that money. In an interview late Thursday on Fox News, Gingrich said that he only worked about an hour a month giving advice to Freddie Mac, the quasi-public mortage company that paid him up to $1.8 million in fees.

AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- As Newt Gingrich attempts to shrug off his political baggage, the former House speaker is under new scrutiny for having close ties to health care giants and flip-flopping on his statements on health care. The Center for Health Transformation, which Gingrich founded, raked in millions of dollars from heavy hitters like GE Healthcare and Wellpoint, as first reported by the Washington Post. The group says it does not lobby, but on its website, it touts its ability to build bridges between the federal government and private sector. Among its strengths, the think tank lists its unparalleled “network...

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Thursday that he's trying to figure out how much money he made from controversial housing giant Freddie Mac and suggested he may release the information as early as Friday. Gingrich's comments, in an interview with Fox News' Greta Van Susteren, represent the latest shift in his campaign's response to a Bloomberg News story earlier this week that said the former House speaker made as much as $1.6 million from Freddie. Initially, the Gingrich campaign promised to release details about the payment, then appeared to back off that pledge. Freddie Mac and its sister quasi-governmental...

A think tank founded by GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich collected at least $37 million over the past eight years from major health-care companies and industry groups, offering special access to the former House speaker and other perks, according to records and interviews. The Center for Health Transformation, which opened in 2003, brought in dues of as much as $200,000 per year from insurers and other health-care firms, offering some of them “access to Newt Gingrich” and “direct Newt interaction,” according to promotional materials. The biggest funders, including firms such as AstraZeneca, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Novo Nordisk, were...

His campaign has said that he did no lobbying; but his consultancy practice was centered around his ability to help big corporate interests speak the language of Republicans and navigate the corridors of Capitol Hill on issues vital to their businesses.

Newt Gingrich spent the last decade being paid by big business to convince conservatives to support big-government policies that would profit his clients. Gingrich's consulting firm racked up $1.6 million in fees from the government-sponsored enterprise Freddie Mac, we learned this week from Bloomberg News. Gingrich's job was to help Freddie Mac win over conservatives to this market-distorting, bubble-fueling, housing-subsidy entity, which is now officially owned by the federal government. We also know that Growth Energy, an ethanol lobby, paid $312,500 to the Gingrich Group in 2009, according to the group's tax filing. Growth Energy lobbies to preserve many ethanol...

Rep. Michele Bachmann hit former Speaker Newt Gingrich hard on Wednesday for receiving consulting fees from mortgage giant Freddie Mac, but it turns out Bachmann herself received campaign contributions from The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation’s (Freddie Mac) political action committee during the 2007-2008 cycle. “While [Gingrich] was taking that money, I was fighting against Fannie and Freddie,” Bachmann said on Wednesday. It turns out that while she was “fighting” them, she was also taking their money.

Link only, per FR posting rules

Even if state officials can scrape together the billions of dollars needed to fund California's ambitious high-speed rail plans, lawsuits from local cities and opposition groups still could delay, divert or derail the project altogether. In the Bay Area, cities and nonprofits are suing over issues with the route and environmental studies. In Southern California, the city of Palmdale has gone to court over fears that rail officials will pull a planned Antelope Valley line through the city and reroute the tracks up Interstate 5 instead. Perhaps the hardest-fought battle is yet to come in the Central Valley, where Kings...

THERE IS nothing that epitomizes California's dysfunctional government more than the state's pursuit of a high-speed rail fantasy that is headed for all-but-certain failure. The latest criticism of the rail scheme comes from the independent Legislative Analyst's Office, which strongly opposes Gov. Jerry Brown's request for an appropriation of $185 million to keep the project moving forward. It's past time for the state to do what it should have done more than a year ago -- cancel the project and stop wasting any more of the taxpayers' money. The High-Speed Rail Authority has bungled the project from the start with...

California's chronic inability to govern itself has made it an international laughingstock with a blistering article in the Economist, a highbrow British magazine, only the latest manifestation of that unfortunate status. The state now has another opportunity to either cement its image as a civic buffoon or begin acting like an adult. It is the disaster-in-waiting known as the high-speed rail project. On a whim, politicians and voters decided a few years ago that a bullet train connecting the northern and southern halves of the state would be a jim-dandy thing to have, even though nobody knew how much it...

California's high-speed rail project is threatened by erratic financing, the state's precarious financial situation and management shortcomings and should be overhauled, the Legislature's budget analyst said Tuesday. The highly critical report by Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor's office concluded that management of the project be shifted from the state High-Speed Rail Authority into the Department of Transportation and the entire program undergo reevaluation -- especially the decision to build an initial segment in the San Joaquin Valley. The report details "a number of problems that pose threats to the high-speed rail project's successful development" and adds: "The Legislature faces some challenging...

EARMARK BAN VOTE TUESDAY: MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD! By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN Tuesday is the first day of the rest of our lives because on that day we will see if the Republican Party is serious about reform or just mouths the words to get back power. The Senate Republican caucus is set to vote on a ban on earmarks. Eighteen Senators have committed to support the proposal. Twenty Senators have committed to back the ban and seven are opposed. But nineteen are still undecided. We need twenty-four to pass the proposal. Please call your Senator to weigh...

Energy Policy: If we're serious about cutting wasteful spending and reining in government, the abolition of subsidies for ethanol production and the ending of mandates for its use would be a good place to start. The Bush tax cuts aren't the only thing that expires at the end of the year. Also set to expire is the mother of all corporate welfare: ethanol subsidies to Big Agriculture coupled with tariffs protecting domestic ethanol production that benefit farm-state senators and congressmen but few others. Ethanol is the perfect tax-spend-and-elect mechanism. Illinois-based Archer Daniels Midland, the nation's second-largest ethanol producer, has operations...

Back in January, agents from the FBI, the IRS and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service searched the office of Kuchera Industries and Kuchera Defense Systems, as well as the homes of the firms' founders. These companies reportedly received over $100 million in earmarks, thanks to Murtha's efforts. While it was unclear whether Murtha was a target of the investigations, the heightened scrutiny of some of his closest donors including Kuchera and PMA allies signals that the Feds may be inching closer to the 35-year-member of Congress, who is a constant nominee for the Congressional Porker of the Year. Eventually the...

Congressman John Murtha reminds me of the character Big Julie in the Guys and Dolls, who boasts: “I got a poifect record: thoity-three arrests, no convictions.” Months ago, the FBI raided the offices of the PMA group. What they found suggested that Murtha and his buddies at the PMA Group operated their own little Earmark Factory. You have to give Congressman John Murtha points for creativity. Almost every day, Murtha finds a brand new way to disgrace the US Congress he sits in, or the Marine uniform he once wore. He convicted some of our military heroes in the "court...

In the end what gave Harry Reid his 60 Obamacare votes were the secret bribes democratic leadership made to "convince" people from his own party to vote for cloture. The most significant of the "bennies" was the one which convinced Ben Nelson to switch from being pro-life to pro-choice. Nelson managed to win a share of the section of the manager's amendment on Equitable Support for Certain States, which will provide Nebraska, along with Massachusetts and Vermont, support in paying its share of additional costs to Medicaid in the health legislation. Not all of that pork went to members of...

So just as a quick update on the overt corruption being passed off as "business as usual" for the Dems: With the bill hanging in the balance, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) won a provision exempting his state from paying the usual share of costs for new Medicaid patients. The deal, which critics have dubbed the "Cornhusker Kickback," is expected to cost the federal government $100 million over 10 years. Before a close vote last month, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) won an even larger break for her state -- an estimated $300 million in extra federal spending, in a move now...

To put it kindly there have been many issues with the execution of the stimulus bill passed by the progressive Democrats in Congress without so much as peeking at what was in it. After the bill was passed the American Public was assured that everything would be OK, after all the SCHMOTUS, Joe Biden was going to make sure. On March 12th Biden, told us that we were going to be protected from stupid uses of the $787 billion dollar stimulus money: So if this -- six months from now, if the verdict on this effort is that we've wasted...

...before we look at spending any more dollars on a new porkulus plan, shouldn't we look at what was done with the first one? After all its nine months after its passage and only around $200 billion of stimulus funding there are millions of Jobs lost and a bogus number of jobs gained. Tom Coburn and John McCain have created a report of the 100 Dumbest Porkulus Projects proving that .....billions of dollars of stimulus funding have been wasted, mismanaged, or directed towards silly and shortsighted projects. Many projects may not produce the types of jobs that most Americans had...

November 19, 2009 Politics as Usual? A Glenn Beck case study Today's Show Segment Video-6:15

On March 12th of this year,the SHMOTUS. Joe Biden, told the American People that he was going to protect them from stupid uses of the $787 billion dollar stimulus money: So if this -- six months from now, if the verdict on this effort is that we've wasted the money, we built things that were unnecessary, or we've done things that are legal but make no sense, then, folks, don't look for any help from the federal government for a long while. They're going to make sure -- the folks in the House and in the Senate are going to...

Politicians of any political stripe are more concerned with their political survival than with what is best for their country, their community, or even their constituents. All too often it boils down to a sorry choice of who is the least evil, rather than who is best. Elected officials should remember that contrary to their skewed understanding, winning the elections does not absolve being answerable to those who elected them. Unfortunately few politicians have any shame, fewer have any principles, and fewer still will stand up to defend them. The electorate has to remember to make the elected officials truly...

Charlie Rangel is trying to prove that you can go home again, or at least pork can go home again. In the latest defense bill Charlie Rangel slipped in a $3 million dollar earmark for CCNY. The defense department didn't want the project. Rangel's association with the school was strengthened years ago with his vanity earmarks surrounding the Charles Rangel School of Public Service at CCNY. This Charlie Rangel “Monument to Me” project was partially funded though US Government grants, directed by the Ways and Means Committee Chairman: Two years after creating a center in his own name at City...

But make no mistake, so are we. If a project doesn’t support our troops, we will not fund it. If a system doesn’t perform, we will terminate it. And if Congress sends me a defense bill loaded with that kind of waste, I will veto it. We will do right by our troops and taxpayers. We will build the 21st century military we need. President Barack Obama 8/17 Speech to VFW Many Veterans were upset at the President for canceling the F-22 fighter without having a back up until the next bomber will be ready. The POTUS promised that it...

Wake Up John Kerry, this year's deficit is approaching two trillion dollars. The F-22 was canceled leaving us with a gap where the US will have no new bombers and we are fighting two wars. American citizens are protesting all across the country because spending and taxes are way to high and you have the nerve to add a $20 million dollar pork barrel project to honor Ted Kennedy? That's what the former Democratic Party standard bearer is doing. That military spending bill moving through Congress contains a sneaky outlay for Boston that has nothing to do with national defense....

Steney Hoyer likes to show the disregard he has for the voters of the United States: On Tuesday he laughed at the suggestion that he read things before he voted on them. “If every member pledged to not vote for it if they hadn’t read it in its entirety, I think we would have very few votes,”In fact, Hoyer found the idea of the pledge humorous, laughing as he responded to the question. “I’m laughing because a) I don’t know how long this bill is going to be, but it’s going to be a very long bill,” he said. Hoyer...

Maybe Congress believes that the "other white meat" is good for you, because the health care bill is loaded with it, even though people are already choking on the price tag. In one more example that the Democratic Party-run congress is just not listening to the will of the people, both the house and Senate versions of the developing Obamacare legislation has special "pet projects" designed to make the representatives more popular in their districts. Included are projects that have nothing to do with providing universal health insurance such as adding lighting to a playground or clearing a walking path...

THE WIDER VIEW: Taking shape, the new bridge at the Hoover Dam 04th July 2009 Creeping closer inch by inch – 900ft above the mighty Colorado River – the two sides of a £160million bridge at the Hoover Dam in America slowly take shape. The bridge will carry a new section of US Route 93 past the bottleneck of the old road which can be seen twisting and winding around and across the dam itself. When complete, it will provide a new link between the states of Nevada and Arizona. In an incredible feat of engineering, the road will be...

Louisiana Senator David Vitter (R-LA) announced this afternoon that he will release his hold on the nomination of FEMA head Craig Fugate. Vitter said his reason for initially holding up the Senate's vote was to ensure infrastructure funds were directed to Louisiana, though critics questioned his motives. "Louisianans have gotten way too many easy spoken assurances from FEMA over the last four years that didn't mean anything. Now that I've secured a specific written commitment from them on the V-Zone issue, we can move forward," Vitter said a press release Tuesday. Vitter, angered over a dispute with FEMA on its...

You have to give Congressman John Murtha points for creativity. Almost every day, Murtha finds a brand new way to disgrace the US Congress he sits in, or the Marine uniform he once wore.... ..Murtha has a new scandal brewing. The FBI raided the offices of the PMA group, founded by a Murtha aide, and one of favorite Lobbying firms, that was on top of another raid of a Murtha buddy back in November.What they are finding out is that Murtha and his buddies at PMA Group operated their own little Earmark Factory:

THIS WEEK, THE UNITED STATES SENATE WILL VOTE ON A SPENDING PACKAGE TO FUND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS FISCAL YEAR THE SENATE SHOULD REJECT THIS BILL. IF WE DO NOT, PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA SHOULD VETO IT. THE OMNIBUS INCREASES DISCRETIONARY SPENDING BY 8% OVER LAST FISCAL YEAR'S LEVELS, DWARFING THE RATE OF INFLATION ACROSS A BROAD SWATH OF ISSUES…APPROPRIATE FOR A NATION FLUSH WITH CASH OR UNCONCERNED WITH FISCAL PRUDENCE, BUT AMERICA IS NEITHER. OUR NATION'S CURRENT FISCAL IMBALANCE IS UNPRECEDENTED, UNSUSTAINABLE AND, IF UNADDRESSED, A MAJOR THREAT TO OUR CURRENCY AND OUR ECONOMIC VITALITY. THE...

As the Senate completes its work on the $410 Billion Dollar Omnibus Bill with over 8,000 earmarked projects, it is important to note who the biggest porkers in the Senate are. The list below shows top 20 Senate Omnibus Bill Porkers. Right on top is Senator Robert Byrd, who when the bill was originally written was chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Other large porkers are Dianne Feinstein of California and Tom Harkin of Iowa. What is particularly disturbing is that 8 of the Top 20 were Republicans, and that Mitch McConnell was so high up on the list. Come on...

It pays when someone else pays.I initially thought President Obama was going to turn a blind eye and neglect the housing crisis in his porktabulous $787 billion spending bill in favor of doorknobs, STD awareness, hybrid cars and abandoned mine sites. It looks like I couldn't be more wrong ... and it took an article I read at the Indy Mind blog to bring it to my attention. (Thanks a million, Arkady).Nothing apparently gets by President Obama - that is, except the truth, American values and the need to keep terrorists caged. Housing, as it turns out, is a huge...

Democrats began to press Mr. Specter, saying he would get the $10 billion increase only if he promised to vote for the eventual bill. Mr. Specter pushed back, saying he was concerned about the size of the bill and its mix of tax credits and spending. “I really do not make deals,” he said. And while he had promised Mr. Durbin nothing, the Illinois senator had made him a promise. As Mr. Durbin recalled, at a Super Bowl party at the White House on Feb. 1, “I told him, ‘I’m keeping my word.’ ” More hard bargaining was ahead. Mr....

Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske has accepted a job as the nation's drug czar in the Obama administration, according to a source in Washington, D.C., who is familiar with the administration's plans. The source said today that Kerlikowske has been chosen to head the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a Cabinet-level position otherwise known as the drug czar. The office, established in 1988, directs drug-control policy in the U.S. Other sources also said they expected Kerlikowske to be named to the job, which requires Senate confirmation. Kerlikowske, who has led the Seattle Police Department for more than eight years,...

Per email from Americans for Prosperity: We’re coming down to the wire on this Pelosi/Reid/Obama trillion dollar spending bill and I'm asking you to join me at a rally in Richmond tomorrow to put pressure on our two Virginia senators -- Mark Warner and Jim Webb. And beyond just putting pressure on these two senators to vote NO, by attending the rally you'll send a message to the media in attendance that there is a strong, energized grassroots movement rallying against the big government, pork barrel politics in Washington, DC. Here are the details on the NoStimulus event: When: Tomorrow,...