In an article written about the latest OMNIBUS Bill that was approved by both houses and signed into law, it now is gleaming what the latest budget bill features an astounding 4,000 “earmarks,” pet spending items slipped into the fine print that fund projects and handouts to special interests in members’ home districts. The money funneled to earmarks totals a whopping $10 billion. (To put that number in context, it’s roughly one-fifth what the federal government spent on COVID-19 vaccine and treatment development.)
The Fee Stories has the story on these 10 items and more.
In a sad commentary on the state of America’s priorities, the $1.5+ trillion spending legislation passed by Congress last week barely made headlines. Little attention was paid to the 2,700-page spending bill or the fact that it was released at 2:30 a.m. on the day of the vote, meaning most members of Congress voted on it blindly without even having skimmed the legislation.
The full list braun.senate.gov of earmarks is 367 pages long! It’s far too long for most journalists—let alone an average American who doesn’t follow these things for a living—to actually go through in detail.
Here are 10 of the most absurd earmarks in the latest spending legislation:
1. $995,000 for a project on “soil health” at New Mexico State University, requested by Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico.
2. $1.5 million for “tree restoration” in Ohio, requested by Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio.
3. $1 million for the “Multicultural Innovation Center” at the Rhode Island Black Business Association, requested by Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island.
4. $60 million to “renovate” the research facilities at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, requested by Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama.
5. $160,000 to study the “sustainability” of astronaut food at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, requested by Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania.
6. $109,000 for facility improvements to a local arts center, requested by Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
7. $200,000 to provide tech support for women and minority-owned businesses via the Vermont Center for Women & Enterprise, requested by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
8. $2 million for a pilot program to try an electric-vehicle-based ferry system in Alaska, requested by Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
9. $600,000 for the YMCA of Southern Arizona, requested by Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona.
10. $110,000 for a food truck and refrigerated van for the Spanish American Center in Massachusetts, requested by Congressman Jim McGovern of Massachusetts.
All these are FUCKING BULLSHIT and INSANE. There are more spending projects, but we have no watch dogs on this insane spending!!! Why are other STATES in this country responsible for other STATES projects???
If this is the CASE, then all of America should be voting on these ASSHOLES on each ELECTION CYCLE.
Here is another website to checkout, The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Fiscal Responsibility