Why Don't Men Like to Wear Condoms?

No, we haven't been spammed. But if the question of 'Why men don't like to wear condoms?' doesn't seem an apt topic for PolicyBlog, does it seem an appropriate subject for taxpayer-funded research?

This is certainly one of the most ridiculous examples of wasteful spending I have come across, and as Dan Mitchell points out, it is the taxpayers who get screwed.

Note, the article doesn't say if the research question is why men don't like to wear condoms during sex, or why they don't like wearing condoms the whole day long.  I ask because the latter research question would top the absurdity of a $2.6 million study dedicated to teaching prostitutes in China to drink less while having sex on the job.

Pennsylvania Lawmakers Still Using Tax Dollars to Buy Votes

Mark Levy of the AP has a hard hitting story of Pennsylvania lawmakers use of WAMs - i.e. "Walking Around Money" made available to us at the discretion of legislative leaders.  Levy finds, not suprisingly, that $110 million in WAMs were doled out in such a way as to benefit the districts of legislative leaders.

But the AP analysis found that tiny Greene County, 56th out of 67 Pennsylvania counties in population and home of last year's House Democratic leader, Bill DeWeese, was slated to receive more than $3 million, or about $82 per person. That made Greene County No. 1 in grant dollars per person and No. 6 in total dollars.

No. 2 in dollars per person was Carbon County - home of House Speaker Keith McCall, who was the Democratic whip last year - with an average of $50 per person in requests. Carbon County, 40th in population, also was expected to receive about $3 million - making it No. 7 in overall dollars.

On the Republican side, House GOP grant requests helped put Jefferson and Delaware counties - respectively the homes of Minority Leader Sam Smith and Mario Civera, the ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee - in line for more money than most counties with similar populations.

In the Senate, Democrats requested outsized portions for the home counties of last year's ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, Gerald LaValle of Beaver County, and his successor, Jay Costa of Allegheny County. Similar patterns were not as evident in the grants requested by the Senate GOP.

For those unfamiliar with WAMs and the WAM process, Levy provides an excellent summary, for those who can stomach learning how sausage is made:

Pennsylvania's budget does not specify the money that is set aside for legislators' special projects. It also does not link grants to individual legislators, or groups of legislators, who sought the money.

Pennsylvania's legislative grants - known colloquially as "WAMs," for walking-around money - have existed in one form or another for a couple of decades, built around the concept of providing the Legislature with a pot of money to spend as it sees fit.

Once the total amount available for the grants in the budget is hammered out behind closed doors, legislative leaders sift through requests from their caucus members and submit selected ones, along with their own, to the governor's office. Executive branch agencies match the requests to applications filed by the intended recipients for more than a dozen programs that are flush with money for the grants. ...

Former Sen. Vincent Fumo of Philadelphia is awaiting sentencing for his February conviction on 137 corruption counts, including the misuse of money from a nonprofit that he founded and partially financed with the grants. Former Rep. Michael Veon of Beaver County has been charged with committing similar crimes.

It is for these reasons - corruption, the process by which WAMs are doled out, and the waste of taxpayer funding, that we believe WAMs should be eliminated from the state budget. We have attempted to identify line items within the state budget that could be classified as WAMs.

It also adds fuel to the growing movement that Pennsylvania needs greater spending transparency.

More on Murtha Airport

Congressman John Murtha's monument to himself - John Murtha airport - has gotten a lot of coverage lately. First, here is the CNN Clip, in which the airport manager gets stumped when asked why the airport needed $800,000 to repave a backup runway, which is in fine condition.



Then comes the ABC News report, in which they traveled to the airport to interview ... well, they had to wait around a while until anyone showed up at the airport.  To be fair, the airport does run more than the 3 commercial flights per day that is reported - some charter flights and private pilots use the airport.  Then again, it still receives a lot of taxpayer funding.

Murtha Gets Earmark for Murtha Airport

This has been making the rounds, but the Washington Post has a detailed article about how Congressman Jack Murtha has gotten hundreds of millions of dollars over the years, and most recently an earmark for a backup runway, for the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport.

One traveler at the airport even finds it absurd,

"Doesn't it seem kind of ridiculous to have a motorized carousel for the baggage claim when 15 people get off the airplane?" he said. "It's obvious: There's not enough population to justify this place."

A spokesman for Murtha claims that the airport is more than just a monument to Murtha, and will help with economic development and attract new businesses to the area. But the article notes how Murtha has been getting federal funding for the airport since 1998. Shouldn't we be seeing the economic benefits of the earmarks by now?

By the way, you may have heard Pennsylvania has a whole lot of "structurally deficient bridges" and highways that are falling apart - perhaps we should stop taking taxpayer dollars away from that to build backup runways at airports to nowhere.

Oink, Oink

Today, Citizens Against Government Waste released its 2009 Congressional Pig Book. The report identifies over 10,000 pork-barrel projects in the federal budget, costing hard-working American's over $19 billion.

Examples of wasteful spending include:

- $3,800,000 for the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy
- $1,900,000 for the Pleasure Beach water taxi service project
- $1,791,000 for swine odor and manure management research.

Also, check out our Government on a Diet: Spending Tips 2009, which identifies wasteful spending in the state budget.

Obama's Budget: More of the Same You Can Believe In

The Cato Institute's Chris Edwards has the latest Tax and Budget bulletin, with an updated analysis of spending by president.

The bulletin reiterates what Cato has been saying for years (as have we), that Bush was a big spender, dramatically increasing both defense spending and domestic spending.  Edwards also notes that Obama is repeating many of the precedents of the Bush administration - deficit spending, Keynesianism, undermining federalism, health care expansion, new subsidies, "government efficiency," and "tiny" spending cuts.

You could add in a return to the culture of eamarks, but I think Citizens Against Government Waste and Taxpayers for Common Sense have already made that point.

Santorum: I'm Proud of My Earmarks

Former Senator Rick Santorum rips the Democrats' earmarks in the omnibus bill as "payoffs to the folks that support them"  and special interests, as well calling Obama a hypocrite for opposing pork/earmarks and now going along with the flow, then confesses he took lots of earmarks, and is "proud of those earmarks."

As I like to point out, Obama and Congressional Democrats are giving us the same failed policies of Bush, Santorum, and Republicans of recent years.

We Can't Spend Our Way to Prosperity

John Stossel has an op-ed up on the pork-laden "stimulus" package:

President Obama has vowed that no earmarks -- special appropriations to benefit particular congressmen -- will sully the final package. But in the Wonderland called Washington, things are never what they seem: "The result, as The Associated Press learned in interviews with more than a dozen lawmakers, lobbyists and state and local officials, is a shadowy lobbying effort that may make it difficult to discern how hundreds of billions in federal money will be parceled out".

What a surprise ...

It's perfectly clear that the recession is a license for politicians to do what they've wanted to do all along. All the usual checks on extravagance, weak as they are, have been washed away. Budgets? We'll worry about that later. Inflation? We'll worry about that later. ...

We should be suspicious when politicians, economists and the media declare a "consensus" and marginalize dissent. President Obama says, "There is no disagreement that we need action by our government, a recovery plan that will help to jumpstart the economy."

That's not true. Last week, the Cato Institute ran a full-page newspaper ad signed by more than 200 economists, including Nobel laureates stating:

We the undersigned do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance. More government spending by Hoover and Roosevelt did not pull the United States economy out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. More government spending did not solve Japan's 'lost decade' in the 1990s ... Lower tax rates and a reduction in the burden of government are the best ways of using fiscal policy to boost growth."

Pennsylvania should be Exhibit A why government can't tax, borrow, and spend its way to prosperity.

Cronyism Undermines Cargo Airport

It appears the Hazleton Airport project is now dead in the water, after Rep. Todd Eachus (the local sponsor and now Majority Leader) has dropped his support after several of the key players in the deal face criminal allegation, and more evidence the airport would have no tenants (more from Gort42).

As we pointed out, this project was only a pork project for polical cronies, and unworthy of taxpayer support.  However, one error the article makes is tying the $250 million in state funding to the budget deficit.  The airport would have been funded from the RACP capital budget - i.e. the state would borrow to fund it.  Lawmakers already approved an $800 million increase in the RACP borrowing, and identified $12.7 billion in projects, so that money will just go to fund pork somewhere else.

Even more reasons to oppose the stimulus

NTU's blog has a long list (via Tom Coburn) of wasteful spending and bad policy in the federal "stimulus" bill, including:

• $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Dept. of Energy defunded last year because the project was inefficient
  
• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film
• $75 million for "smoking cessation activities"
  

FreedomWorks also has a list of the Top 10 Reasons to Oppose the Stimulus, starting with "The Stimulus Will Not Work"

The chart to the right, courtesy of the Heritage Foundation, shows that the cost of the "stimulus" per family is more than they spend on food, health care, and apparel per year. 

Finally, Matthew Vadum writes how the stimulus contains numerous provisions to reward Obama's political allies, such as ACORN.

Rendell to layoff workers, keep rewarding allies

Governor Rendell today announced that he projects Pennsylvania's revenue shortfall to reach $2.3 billion, updated from $1.6 billion a month ago and $1.9 billion a week ago, suggesting their may need to be layoffs, and he wants "no whining." John Micek also reports that Rendell expects $900 million from a federal "stimulus" and will "zero-out" WAMs in the next budget.

Matt Brouillette's Capitol Domes post hammers Governor Rendell for his "Do as I say, not as I do" rhetoric, namely creating a new position for his buddy Dan Surra while threatening these layoffs. This follows Rendell's freezing workers pay while shoveling out grants to snowmobile clubs, unveiling a website about a woodchuck in a car accident, and most recently dolling out $12 million in grants for agriculture and tourism and $3.5 million for the "President's House" project.

The Burlington County Times editorializes that there can be "no sacred cows" in the budget, presumably that includes jobs for Rendell's buddies and his pork-barrel projects.

Shovel Ready?

In discussion of a "stimulus" plan/bailout of state and local governments, a lot of has been made of funding "shovel ready" projects - thus leading to governors and mayors putting together ridiculous wish lists.

In contrast, National Taxpayers Union and Citizens Against Government Waste have compiled "Axe-ready" programs - trillions in wasteful federal spending that should be returned to taxpayers.

A related effort, GrabAShovel.com, has started, seeking to identify those absurd requests to "stimulate" the economy. See related links: The Pig Pen and The Oink Report.

Update: You can find the full list of requests by city here. And for the folks who wonder why I called it "ridiculous" answer this - $1 billion for sidewalks; 28 stadium projects, 117 beautification efforts, 20 golf courses. Any of that seem ridiculous to you?

Earmarks Galore

Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn has a new report on the most outrageous examples of federal spending.  Some of the top examples, courtesy of the Center for Fiscal Accountability:

• $188,000 for Lobster Institute in Maine, home of the “LobsterCam”
• $1 million for bike paths on Louisiana levees while levees await basic repairs
• $2.4 million for a retractable shade canopy at a park in West Virginia
• $24.6 million for the National Park Service’s 100th year birthday in 2016 - 8 years early
• $3.2 million on a blimp the Pentagon does not want
•  $367,000 wasted by a Texas school board on items like an inflatable alligator and under-the-sea waterslide, among other things
• $5 million for a bridge to a zoo parking lot in St. Louis
• $9,000 for a non-functioning airplane-shaped gas station in Tennessee 
• $300,000 for specialty potatoes for high-end restaurants

Your tax dollars at work...

One thing Coburn pointed out on the call beyond that is the fact there are $30 billion worth of federal buildings that are not used but for which maintenance cost is being paid to the tune of $5-6 billion per year, yet these buildings can't be sold off!?

Time Magazine also has compiled a ranking of the 10 most outrageous earmarks of 2008.

Finally, Legistorm has combined with Taxpayers for Common Sense to build a searchable database of earmarks (HT to NTU).  Pennsylvania ranks 8th in earmarks by state.

Cut Legislature First

The Philadelphia Inquirer editorializes that the first item to be cut from the budget should be the legislature's budget, noting this is the source of funding for bonuses, no-work jobs for mistresses, and Fumo's posse (not to mention the legal fees tied to Bonusgate and legislators' promotional calendars).

For the past two months, the public has been treated to daily allegations in federal court of how State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo (D., Phila.) spent "other people's money" - including taxpayer dollars - on himself. Prosecutors say he misused more than $2 million in Senate funds.

Attorney General Tom Corbett is prosecuting a dozen current and former House Democratic staffers and officials in a scheme that allegedly paid aides $1.3 million of taxpayers' money for campaign work. One aide, the former chief of staff to House Majority Whip Bill DeWeese (D., Greene), earned $42,000 in bonuses over three years while allegedly hiring a beauty queen with taxpayer money so she could become his paramour.

Republicans also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars from state coffers on staff bonuses, although apparently not for campaign work. Either way, the habit was an extravagant use of tax money. And a grand jury is examining whether the House GOP improperly used a $9 million taxpayer-funded database for political purposes.

The Inky could have added that the legislative leadership accounts currently have an estimated $250 million in reserve that they are sitting on, and that Sen. Fumo and Rep. Mike Veon have also, allegedly, been illegally using the several hundred million in legislative-controlled WAMs.

Budget shortfall, but money (and giant checks) for pork is plentiful

Even though Pennsylvania is facing a massive budget shortfall, don't expect Governor Rendell to stop touring the state handing out taxpayer funds. Yesterday, he announced $44 million in "investments" in recreation and conservation. Among the grants awarded were:

• $45,200 to the Forest County Snowmobile Club for "snow grooming equipment"
• $142,500 for "technical assistance related to planting trees and shrubs"
• $45,000 for "the development of boat launches and access"

For the full "see how great I am" news release, click here.

Taxpayers still buying promotional calendars for lawmakers

Dennis Owens of ABC 27 has a story that the latest Capitol Calendars ("courtesy" of your legislator) are now available.  Owens recalled our breakdown of the cost of calendars to taxpayers from last year.  Of course, calendars are a small expense, but small expenses add up, and with a budget deficit (and tax increase) looming, is this really something taxpayers should be funding? 

Calendars are among the many items we identified as wasteful spending, including a whole category of "incumbent protection plans", like WAMs, Public Service Announcements, legislative newsletters, studios for lawmakers TV shows, and the like.

Earmark searches made easy

The Seattle Times has a great tool for searching earmarks.  Not only can you find defense earmarks for each member of Congress, but they also report campaign contributions from (employees, PACs, or lobbyists of) earmark recipients.

Here is the lengthy list for PA Senator Arlen Specter.

Check out Pork Parade

Congressman Jeff Flake has a new website to expose Pork from Washington. To contribute to the discussion, you can twitter with the code #pork.

Twitter users can also follow the Commonwealth Foundation here.

Lancaster County delegation doles out $3 million in WAMs

LancasterOnline breaks down the taxpayer-funded pork projects (WAMs) awarded by Lancaster County lawmakers. (HT: GrassrootsPA)

Who opposed the Bridge to Nowhere?

NTU sums up the "Bridge to Nowhere" opposition:

Sarah Palin has declared she said "thanks, but no thanks" on the Bridge to Nowhere. And it's true, that she stopped the project. But as this Wall Street Journal article argues, she killed it reluctantly after originally supporting it.

But, let's not stop there. Obama and Biden can't really be described as anti-Bridge. In fact, in 2005, both men voted against the Coburn amendment which would have redirected money for the Bridge to Nowhere to funding Katrina relief projects.

The only politician who consistently and loudly opposed the Bridge to Nowhere is the guy who hasn't ever requested an earmark for Arizona. Although he skipped the vote on the Coburn amendment.