Taxpayers for common sense has identified 6600 earmarks in the omnibus bill worth $8 billion. From the pdf:
Transportation
Chicago Aviation Education Initiative
$250,000
Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL)
Old Taylor Road Roundabouts
$500,000
Childers
Cochran, Wicker
Bronx Zoo Transportation Facility to alleviate traffic congestion and improve access, Bronx, NY,
$500,000
Serrano
E. Stadium Bridges Replacement Project, City of Ann Arbor, MI,
$500,000
Dingell
Illinois Pedestrian and Bicycling road and trail improvements and enhancements, IL,
$2,500,000
Durbin
FHWA – Surface Transportation Investments: Monongalia Health Systems, Morgantown, WV,
$1,000,000
Rockefeller
HUD – Economic Development Initiatives – Atlanta Center for Civil and Human Rights – Construction of a Civil Rights Museum and Visitor Center in Downtown Atlanta,
$500,000
Chambliss, Isakson
John Lewis
Labor-HHS-Education
Iowa Department of Education, Des Moines, IA, to continue the HarkinGrant program
$6,000,000
Harkin
Defense
Hawaii Federal Health Care System (second largest)
$21,000,000
Inouye
Gulf Coast Land-based test facility (largest defense earmark)
$21,700,000
Cochran, Wicker
John P. Murtha Foundation
$10,000,000
Brady, Fattah, Critz, Moran, Tim Ryan
Freedom Fuels/Coal Fuel Alliance
$2,400,000
Bunning
Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate
$8,000,000
Markey
Agriculture
Advanced Genetic Technologies, KY
$650,000
McConnell
Cool Season Legume Research, ID, ND, WA
$350,000
Dicks (D-WA); Pomeroy (D-ND)
Cantwell (D-WA); Conrad (D-ND); Dorgan (D-ND); Murray (D-WA)
Maple Research, VT
$165,000
Leahy (D-VT)
Small Fruit Research, ID, OR, WA
$307,000
Blumenauer; Dicks; Larsen (WA); Schrader; Wu
Cantwell; Crapo; Merkley; Murray; Risch; Wyden
Wood Utilization, AK, ID, LA, ME, MI, MN, MS, NC, OR, TN, WV
$4,841,000
Butterfield; Childers; DeFazio; Michaud; Miller (NC); Oberstar; Pingree (ME); Price (NC); Schrader; Wu; Young (AK)
Burr; Cochran; Collins; Crapo; Franken; Klobuchar; Landrieu; Levin; Merkley; Murkowski; Risch; Rockefeller; Snowe; Stabenow; Wicker; Wyden
Arthropod Damage Control, NV
$1,000,000
Reid
Natural Resources Conservation Service
Conservation Operations
Cooperative Agreement with Tufts University, CT
333,000
Courtney; DeLauro
Dodd; Lieberman
Phase II construction, National Center for Natural Products Research, Oxford, MS
$5,000,000
Childers
Cochran; Wicker
Department of Homeland Security
National Bio and Agro-defense Facility KS
$40,000,000
Sen. Brownback
Interior
National Park Service, Golden Gate NRA (Alcatraz)
$5,000,000
Feinstein
National Park Service, Account: Construction, PA, Flight 93 Memorial (water & sewer infrastructure):
$3,700,000
Sens. Specter, Casey
Fish and Wildlife Service – Account: Land Acquisition, HI, Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge –
$6,000,000,
Inouye, Akaka
Hirono
EPA – Account: STAG Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Project, DC/MD, DC Water and Sewer Authority for nitrogen removal at Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Plant,
$5,027,890,
Mikulski, Cardin
Norton, Donna Edwards
EPA – Account: STAG – Other, CA, Emissions Reduction Grants to the San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District and South Coast Air Quality Management District,
$15,000,000,
Feinstein, Boxer
Cardoza, Costa, McNerney
This budget is an abomination, and should be written by the incoming Congress; especially since the 111th coucn’y find the time to take it up until the waning days of their session anyway.
There’s no time for debate, or even reading it, for crying out loud. I hope Coburn makes good on his promise to force a reading of it.
And they say Democrats don’t believe in Christmas…
Mazel Tov!
More like Black Friday, from the looks of this shopping spree…oh wait, no need for them to shop for bargains.
endingspending.com has some great features to look up the earmarks. Map is here and you can click on a state and then choose which asshole you want to check on.
The really sad thing is that the GOP leadership is probably thinking about all the shit they’ll be able to get away with when it’s their turn to cram all of their most-favored pet projects into an omnibus bill and ram it through a lame duck session right before fleeing Capitol Hill for a cozy K Street retirement.
And if indeed they are thinking that way, their lame duck moment will be coming sooner than they realize.
Stabenow:
$50,000,000. For what? Signs that tell people not to move wood?
$50,000,000. For what? Signs that tell people not to move wood
They’d be better off offering a $10M bounty to the person or persons who come up with a succesful eradication program.
But there’s no graft for the political class, its cronies and enablers in that, is there?
7.5 billion trees with an economic value of over $300 billion.
Just sell 1% of ’em, Debbie. That’ll get you a cool $3 billion for your eradication program.
For what, we ask? But folks, it’s always “for” something. The question is, what is not being attended to. What is unseen?
So we are paying to have future leeches and grifters trained and/or supported. Pardon me while I go bang my head on the table and weep.
The “HarkinGrant program”, paid for by all of us, our children, our grandchildren and … but Sen. Tom Harkin gets his name on it.
Sweet deal Tom. And I do notice the word “continue”.
So, yeah, one obvious place to start cutting would be anything with a politician’s name attached to it. Unless it’s a really cool name like Dash Riprock or something.
Separated at birth?
These are all “chump change”. Now here’s your new improved Obama-sized earmark. The Obama hyperinflation hits first in the payoffs sector.
I’m confused about this earmark by Cleaver. It doesn’t appear on the endingspending.com list, and on Cleaver’s own website, it is listed as the VERY last request, and the dollar amount is xxxed out with a bunch of “######”s. Although in the “explanation of purpose” is does have the $$8 billion dollar price tag.
Sorry, $48 dollar price tag.
Cleaver is desperately trying to buy clout against the Missouri Legislature’s reapportionment plans, lest they redraw the boundaries in such a way he can’t get re-elected next time.