Tell your US Rep. and two US Senators NO to political manipulation of procurement process

Citizens Against Government Waste is returning to a fight in Congress they thought they had already won-- open and competitive bidding in the defense procurement process. Yet, despite a scandal, a massive federal fine, and even criminal penalties for some of those involved, Boeing Co. is once again trying to use its political connections in Congress to secure an Air Force refueling tanker contract.

While the $35 billion cost to taxpayers of the tanker contract is significant, more is at stake in this battle than dollars and cents. Letting Congress disrupt the competitive procurement process will set a dangerous precedent for all future federal contracts. Members of Congress will simply select their favored pet contractors, regardless of the cost to taxpayers or the impact on our Armed Forces.

Please tell your U.S. Representative and Senators today that you won’t stand for this blatant political manipulation, by sending a customizeable letter from CAGW's website. Or, call them directly through the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121. Thank you

Sphere: Related Content

The 2008 Congressional Pig Book from Citizens Against Government Waste is published

The 2008 Congressional Pig Book Summary is here!

This morning Citizens Against Government (CAGW) shared with the American people the names of those in Congress who are responsible for the 11,610 pork-barrel projects costing you $17.2 billion in the fiscal 2008 budget. They were joined by leading opponents of this congressionally earmarked spending, including Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Reps. John Campbell (R-Calif.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Tom Price (R-Ga.), and Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

Topping this year’s list of outrageous special-interest projects are:

* $4,840,870 for wood utilization research;
* $1,529,220 for the Appalachian Fruit Lab;
* $984,400 for Idaho's strategic plan for managing noxious weeds; and
* $98,000 for a walking tour of Boydton, Va. (population 474).

Earmark reform is a hot topic in Washington these days, yet Congress' taste for spending on personal projects stays. There has been a decrease in earmark spending in the last few years, but over $17B is still a lot of waste in a secretive budgeting process.

For a donation of $25 or more, Citizens Against Government waste can mail you a copy of their annual book. Your contributions also help the work of this non-profit in its fight for fiscal discipline in DC.

Sphere: Related Content

Can PigFoot present US Rep. Murtha the 2007 Porker of the Year award? Video

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has the latest video on the legendary "PigFoot", their mascot. Here, he tries to give their 2007 Porker of the Year award to US Rep. John Murtha (Dem-PA) during his annual dinner with defense contractors, many of which he gives earmarks to in exchange for campaign contributions!

Here is that video...

Sphere: Related Content

Tell your US Senators to vote YES for year-long earmark moratorium

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) is running an internet grassroots campaign to remove earmarks from the federal budgeting process.

Right now, Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) are offering an amendment to the 2009 budget resolution that will impose a year-long moratorium on congressional earmarks.

Earmarking invites fraudulent behavior, hollows out or national defenses, and diverts lawmakers' attention from important national business like saving Medicare and Social Security for our children and grandchildren. Many congressional offices even have one or more staffers dedicated solely to procuring earmarks.

A year-long moratorium is a critical step forward to stopping Congress’s addiction to earmarking. It will give members time to reform the process, devote more effort to critical issues, and help keep money in taxpayers’ wallets instead of being diverted to Washington where it can be converted into pork.

Please tell your Senators to support the DeMint-McCain Amendment to keep wasteful, pork-barrel spending out of the 2009 budget!

You can also call them through the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.

Sphere: Related Content

US Reps. Lois Capps and Devin Nunes named Porkers of the Month

From CAGW's Porker of the Month page:

" Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named Reps. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) and Devin Nunes (R-Calif) Porkers of the Month for attempting to impede the recovery of hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicare overpayments. Using Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs), private-sector auditing companies that specialize in uncovering improper payments, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has recouped $357.2 million in overpayments to Medicare providers in California, Florida, and New York since 2005. A demonstration project slated to roll out nationwide next month, the RAC audits have deterred fraud and reduced Medicare’s improper payment rate, according to CMS officials. However, with their home-state hospitals objecting to having to account for $120 million in improper payments, Reps. Capps and Nunes have introduced H.R. 4105, which would place a one-year moratorium on the RAC program, blocking the nationwide rollout and essentially ending the three-state pilot project. For being more interested in kowtowing to pressure from hospitals in their districts that billed for millions they were not entitled to than in shielding the Medicare program and taxpayers from huge losses, CAGW names Reps. Capps and Nunes its February, 2008 Porkers of the Month. "

Sphere: Related Content

U.S. Rep. John Murtha is 2007 Porker of the Year

Well, it's been voted on by you, the citizens at Citizens Against Government Waste-- U.S. Representative John Murtha (Dem.-PA) is the "coveted" (by Murtha) 2007 Porker of the Year!

You saw him throw a temper tantrum and threaten fellow appropriations committee members where his earmarks are often made last May, and voted him Porker of the Month.

But he didn't stop there. Rep. Jack Murtha has long been known inside the Beltway for using threats, power plays, and backroom deals to control spending decisions. There is an area of the House floor known as “Murtha’s Corner,” where the legendary appropriator dispenses earmarks.

Get more of the sordid details of this legendary porkmeister at a webpage devoted just for this "coveted" prize at Swine Line blog.

UPDATE: Judicial Watch's Corruption Chronicles blog shares with us the annual appreciation dinner for Rep. Murtha by the same contractors that enjoy the free federal money known as earmarks:

" To show their appreciation, the contractors hold an annual payback dinner for Murtha at a fancy Washington-area venue. This year’s event (“an evening with Jack and Joyce Murtha”) is scheduled for February 27 at the Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City in Virginia, across the Potomac from Washington. Diners (earmark recipients) will pay $1,500 a person to eat with Murtha and his wife.

Of interesting note is that the invitations to the costly dinner were sent out right before the annual deadline for earmark applications. Murtha ended up getting more earmark dollars than any other legislator in the massive 2008 military spending bill. He secured 48 earmarks for a total $150.5 million. "

Sphere: Related Content

Program that can recover billions of dollars for Medicare/Medicaid neglected by Congress

The Citizens Against Government Waste newsletter E-News from CAGW reports on a new way to audit and recover billions of dollars per year for Social Security. Unfortunately, the ways of Washington haven't given it the consideration American taxpayers must demand from them.

CAGW reiterated support for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) efforts to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in improper payments made to hospitals and healthcare providers using the Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) Program. RACs, which are private-sector auditing companies that specialize in uncovering improper payments, have offered a commonsense solution to the leakage of billions of dollars in overpayments and underpayments to federal healthcare contractors. Audits being conducted in three states (California, Florida, and New York) as part of a CMS demonstration project launched in 2005 have exposed $299.5 million in improper payments, and CMS recently announced that the payment error rate has dropped significantly, translating into $11 billion that the government has retained instead of seeing it paid to healthcare providers who billed for it erroneously. Nonetheless, parochial interests are prompting some politicians to line up to gut the program before it rolls out nationwide. “This program is reducing billing errors, fraud, and abuse, and now it is being undermined by the very people who were elected to protect taxpayers,” declared CAGW President Tom Schatz. Read more about efforts to stymie Medicare provider audits.

Sphere: Related Content

$55 billion in improper HHS payments in 2007

According to The Swine Line, the blog of Citizens Against Government Waste, work has begun in Washington to calculate the improper payments made by its various federal agencies:

The GAO just released its most recent report on estimated improper payments made by federal agencies. Overall 2007 estimates for improper payments (overpayments or underpayments, but guess which one is most prevalent?) were $55 billion. The most vulnerable federal program was the Medicaid fee-for-service program, which had an estimated $13 billion in improper payments and that was only for its fee-for-service program and only for six months worth of claims. Government Executive Magazine reports that:

HHS is not the only agency still working to develop improper payment estimates. GAO reported that the fiscal 2007 estimate did not include data from 14 risk-susceptible programs with outlays of $170 billion. Nine of these fall under the Homeland Security Department and were only recently identified as risk-susceptible. GAO considered the identification of programs as an important step toward proper reporting and prevention of improper payments. Twelve of the 14 programs that did not report estimates aim to do so for 2008. The other two did not report target implementation dates.

Sphere: Related Content

Vote for 2007 Porker of the Year

Swineline blog from Citizens Against Government Waste has opened an online poll for 2007 "Porker of the Year". Yes, now you can have your say on who was the most egregious earmark spender among the U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators in our hallowed halls of Congress! Vote now!

Sphere: Related Content

Tell the U.S. House Republican Steering Committee to place Rep. Flake on the Appropriations Cmte.

Citizens Against Government Waste is asking us to help put U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake onto the important House Appropriations Committee. Rep. Flake has been a tireless leader against corruption in Congress, including the unethical earmarks being spent by the billions of dollars each year. If you agree, please write the Republican Steering Committee and urge them to place Rep. Jeff Flake on the House Appropriations Committee.

CAGW has this to say about the dire need to equip this spending committee with fiscally responsible representatives:

Dear __,
Right now, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) is seeking to be placed on the House Appropriations Committee. Rep. Flake has been the House’s leading champion for smaller, less wasteful government and has helped spearhead the drive to restore fiscal discipline in Washington.
I urge you, before you do anything else today, to write the Republican Steering Committee and urge them to place Rep. Jeff Flake on the House Appropriations Committee! Rep. Flake has an unblemished record on congressional earmarks, having never requested a single pork-barrel project, and has been a tireless advocate on behalf of all taxpayers. The explosion of earmarks over the 12 years of Republican leadership corresponded with a collapse of fiscal restraint and personal ethics in Congress. While some have argued that the cost of earmarks represents an
insignificant portion of total federal spending, they ignore the outsized role earmarks play as the “currency of corruption” in Washington. They also ignore - at their own peril - how "Bridges to Nowhere" and other poster children for pork undermine the public’s image of Congress.
If Republicans wish to restore fiscal discipline and end the culture of corruption that has consumed Washington, Rep. Flake boasts the credentials to help lead the way. If appointed to the Appropriations Committee, he will help restore integrity to the
appropriations process and refocus Congress’s role on issues of national importance, not on parochial concerns better left to state and local governments, such as bike paths, teapot museums, and peanut festivals.
Time is of the essence. Please tell the Republican Steering Committee to place Rep. Flake on the House Appropriations Committee today!
Sincerely,
Thomas A. Schatz, President

Sphere: Related Content

CAGW Names U.S. Rep. Clyburn Porker of the Month

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has released its November Porker of the Month! He is U.S. Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.). He airdropped a $3 million earmark for the First Tee golf program into the fiscal 2008 Department of Defense Appropriations Act conference report. First Tee’s mission, according to its website, is “To impact the lives of young people by providing learning facilities and educational programs that promote character development and life-enhancing values through the game of golf.”

Rep. Clyburn is a multiple committer of federal government funds to the honorable game of golf. In August 2007, the City of Columbia Golf Center was renamed the James E. Clyburn Golf Center and a statue of him was erected outside the facility. Great Scot! We have two wars going on right now! Does that mean anything anymore? I am teed off...

Congrats and salute to the most popular golfer in Columbia right now...

Sphere: Related Content

CAGW Names U.S. Senator Shelby Porker of the Month

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) Porker of the Month for October 2007 for an $11 million Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) earmark for his alma mater.

Laurels of garland should adorn the esteemed Senators navel for this distinguishable recognition; salute!

Sphere: Related Content

Tell your Senators to vote YES on an internet tax ban

Citizens Against Government Waste is running a taxpayer alert for a proposed ban on internet taxes. Currently, there are no "internet taxes" by any level of government, such as email tax or internet retail sales tax. Here's what CAGW says; if you agree, please send your letter to both of your U.S. Senators from this webpage.

Dear _,
In less than 10 days, you and I could be paying a tax for sending e-mails. That’s right. The existing moratorium on Internet taxes expires on November 1, 2007, and unless Congress acts, the federal, state, and local governments will be free to tax any aspect of using the Internet -- from going online, to sending and receiving e-mails, to buying and selling goods and services.
I urge you, before you do anything else today, tell your Senators to pass a permanent ban on Internet taxes! The House last week passed a four-year extension of the Internet tax moratorium, and the Senate is scheduled to take up legislation this week. While extending the moratorium is better than letting it lapse, it leaves the door open for eventual taxation and creates a climate of uncertainty for individuals and businesses that rely on the Internet. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), John Sununu (R-N.H.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) are pushing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to allow a vote on making the Internet tax ban permanent. The Senate needs to hear that Americans like you support a permanent ban! The Internet has become a vital part of our economy and keeping its use tax-free is essential for economic growth. Enacting a permanent ban will provide much-needed consumer and business confidence. It will also keep governments at all levels from tapping into a new pot of money that they can squander on more wasteful spending programs. Time truly is of the essence. Please tell your Senators to support Sens. McCain, Sununu, and Wyden in their drive to make the Internet tax ban permanent!
Sincerely, Thomas A. Schatz, President

Sphere: Related Content