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February 18, 2010
Less than 2% of Overall Congressional Spending
Posted by The MaryHunter at February 18, 2010 10:11 AM
And the question is: "What proportion of congressional spending was the result of earmarks in fiscal year 2010?" Only less than 2%. And there's more good news: the number of earmarks has come down from fiscal 2009 as well! (even if the total amount went up a bit)
For fiscal 2010, Congress included 9,413 earmarks in the annual appropriations bills that fund the federal government, down from 10,363 in 2009, according to a report released Wednesday by Taxpayers for Common Sense, an independent watchdog dedicated to rooting out waste. Those earmarks accounted for $15.9 billion, up from $15.6 billion the previous year, the group found. That represents less than 2 percent of overall spending appropriated by Congress each year.
So, it's NOT really a BIG DEAL, all this pork. However, if you are among the snippy folk who are offended by the notion of pork-barrel spending in a time of skyrocketing deficits and unimaginable unfunded mandates, here are a few Champions of Pork:
Senate*
Thad Cochran (R-Miss.): $497,591,000 (242 projects)
Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii): $392,432,850 (158)
Roger Wicker (R-Miss.): $368,039,000 (163)
Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.): $292,014,000 (96)
Tom Harkin (D-Iowa): $267,589,200 (194)
House
Bill Young (R-Fla.): $90,450,000 (41 projects)
Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.): $82,694,000 (51)
John Murtha (D-Pa.): $82,443,000 (34)
Harold Rogers (R-Ky.): $68,309,000 (36)
David Obey (D-Wisc.): $55,435,000 (54)
*Includes projects that senators served as lead sponsor but also shared credit with other lawmakers. House totals are for earmarks in which lawmaker secured them solely on his own.
And, the representation of Republicans among the porksters above is slightly higher than the overall percentage:
With fewer Republicans pursuing the line items, they accounted for 34 percent of the dollar value of earmarks dished out on a partisan basis, down from 43 percent in 2008.
In a time when trillion has become a part of our active lexicon, it's easy to lose sight of just how very much a billion is. When our children begin paying a phenomenal amount of interest every day on this "only 2%" plus the remaining 98%, they will be cursing our current leaders to the end of their days.
