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Shaking up mindsets

"Yes, the amounts of pork we're identifying are chump change in comparison to the overall fiscal fiasco that we call the federal budget. But the exact dollar amounts saved by trimming specific pork projects aren't the point," writes New Zealand Bear re the efforts of us PorkBusters trying to get our Senators and Representatives to come out and tell us where they stand in the pork-for-Katrina debate:

To me, the point is to take a step --- a small one, granted -- towards a culture of greater fiscal responsiblity in Washington. If we can hold our representatives on Capitol Hill accountable for the small bits of pork, then perhaps that example will also make them think twice about the larger boondoggles that plague our government.

Think of it as a "broken windows" policy for the national budget. Just as urban police departments crack down on decay and neglect as a way to discourage the larger problem of serious crimes, we're stamping down on pork in the hopes that by so doing, we shake some sense into Congress and get them to take their responsibilties to the budget more seriously.

It might not work. But then again, maybe it will. Let's give it a try with our best efforts, and find out.

As we said in his comments:

It's so yesterday to say there's nothing we can do. How do we know -- and how can we live with ourselves -- if we don't try? Nothing ventured, nothing gained. When old saws come streaming to mind, you know you're on to something. This is about shaking up mindsets, and the "Broken Windows" analogy is perfect pitch.

Oh, yes, and there's a lovely InstaLanche in there, too.

Also this email from Crystal Patterson, internet operations manager of "Kennedy for Senate." [Was there ever any question? --ed]  It sounds like the senior Senator from Massachusetts is up to speed on the blogospheric imperative:

Hey!  I run Senator Kennedy’s campaign website, and I oversee all of our online outreach and organizing.  I got a heads-up that you were looking for some answers on some of the budget decisions that are going to have to be made because of Katrina (and as it stands now, probably Rita as well).  I wanted to get back to you and let you know I should have an answer for you shortly.

PS – I have a group of bloggers that I keep in contact with, especially in Massachusetts.  Can I add you to that list?

You sure can, cutie pie. She wants to convert us, and we want to convert her.  This could get interesting.

Technorati tag:  porkbusters.

Wake up, and smell the pork.

If you like pork-for-Katrina swaps, you'll love the stupid-for-smartass swaps of First Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, "the man of a thousand one-liners," dubbed by The Christian Science Monitor "the Rudy Giuliani of the Gulf Coast." A black Cajun who talks the talk, he's the man in charge of the military's response to Hurricane Katrina, "credited with changing the character of the relief effort from a mad scramble to an increasingly orderly and effective rescue and restoration." His blogospheric "numbers" shot through the roof yesterday -- "a new catchphrase has been born, raved Vodka Pundit -- when he pointed out to a member of the press "You are stuck on stupid." Transcript and audio at Radio Blogger and video at The Political Teen [via InstaPundit] .

"A grassroots Internet campaign and a handful of House GOP conservatives have refused to give up on the idea that spending cuts should be found to defray the estimated $200 billion federal price tag for hurricane relief," says a Wall Street Editorial this morning [subscription only], adding that "in the Senate, John McCain is proposing a similar pork-for-Katrina swap":

The Internet campaign picks up on the idea of revisiting the earmarks in the Highway Bill. A Web site called Porkbusters (www.truthlaidbear.com/porkbusters.php) helpfully lists these projects by state and directs readers to the appropriate Representatives and Senators to ask what they would cut. Around the country a flood of letters to local newspapers has echoed the theme.

Pretty cool. They mention Rep. Ron Lewis's "Dear  Colleague" letter [published by blogger Mark Tapscott yesterday and blogged here] asking for a one-year moratorium on all non-defense earmarks for fiscal 2006 and continue:

Other suggestions include across-the-board spending cuts at federal agencies of 2.5 cents on the dollar and delaying the introduction of the Medicare drug benefit by a year. We should be hearing more today when members of the House Republican Study Committee -- led by consistent spending hawks such as Mike Pence, Jeb Hensarling and Jeff Flake -- announce "Operation Offset" and a list of specific options to find savings in the budget.

It looks like officials are taking Gen. Honoré's advice to not get stuck on stupid as Rita, now a Cat 4 storm  with 135 mph winds, bears down on Galveston and other areas of southeastern Texas. Evacuations underway, with local mayors urging neighbor to help neighbor.  Our thoughts are with our blog friends in Houston.  Stay safe. We know YOU will not get stuck on stupid.

So much for pork-for-Katrina swaps. Back to stupid-for-smartass swaps. Michelle Malkin is justifiably fed up with GW's appointment of a political crony to head up the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, and The Wall Street Journal is fed up with the White House's spending habits:

The startling bottom line on Bush administration profligacy is this: At $22,000 per household, federal spending is at an inflation-adjusted post-World War II high and set to go still higher soon as the Baby Boomers start drawing Medicare and Social Security. Reforming those entitlements will be tough enough. And voters will have good reason not to want to entrust that task to a party that can't even admit the wastefulness of bridges to nowhere in the wake of the new century's worst hurricane.

Wake up, Mr. President, and smell the pork.

Technorati tag:  porkbusters.

"You'll probably have to wait days"

Don't touch the pork?  Red in tooth and claw, Baby has no patience with Beltway types afraid to cut the meat to the bone.

For effort, we award the following grades to the offices of our Massachusetts Representative and Senators -- all democrats -- for their responses to our inquiries this afternoon re their bosses' pork-trimming intentions:

Rep. Michael E, Capuano: A
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy: A-
Sen. John F. Kerry: F

It's safe to say we knew what their positions would be before dialing -- roll back "tax cuts for the wealthy," and don't touch the pork -- but the way each one's office handled a constituent's call is important.  Not that we would ever vote for one of them in a million years. But Capuano's and Kennedy's staff were friendly and helpful -- professional -- while Kerry's were snotty and dismissive:

Capuano's office:

John Lenicheck, Capuano's deputy district director, acknowledged his boss would not be supporting any budget cuts. We asked whether Capuano would support Rep. Ron Lewis's (R-KY) "Dear Colleague" letter, described by Mark Tapscott:

[Lewis] is challenging fellow Members of Congress to join him in asking the House to adopt a one-year moratorium on all "non-defense earmarks." That's Washingtonese for "pork barrel projects."

Lenicheck had not heard of the letter -- sent to Republicans only, perhaps? -- and pointed out that according to Lewis's website, he himself hasn't committed to any cuts. Good point. More research required.

Kennedy's office:

Kennedy's office started off slow, trying to shuffle us off to the usual voice-mail dead end.  But when we insisted we'd already left several voice mails, they connected us to Tom Crohan, who suggested we visit the Senator's web site and agreed to answer our specific questions by return email if we would email him. Fair enough. He also distinguished between transportation budget dollars' coming from gasoline taxes vs. other budgetary items' coming from income taxes. We didn't really get his point, but don't forget, we don't know nothin' 'bout the budget process, and this is the first time we've ever called a Senator's office.

Kerry's office:

They gave the usual voice-mail routine, but when we asked how long a reply might take -- "days, weeks?" -- the woman said, with attitude, "Yes, you'll probably have to wait days." Oh, yah?  So's your old man.

The tone of Kerry's staff response reminded us of the old waffler himself, a bit too nuanced for our taste. As we said re Kerry's contempt for us last year during campaign season:

Like so many of our betters in the political class -- take John McCain with his global-warming demagoguery, blogged here yesterday, where he assumes we little people are too stupid and lazy to be up on the science -- these titans think they can manipulate our dependency and cluelessness at will. Especially now that we have the blogosphere to test conventional wisdom and outright deception, they're going to have to start showing a little respect.

It looks like we aren't the only ones getting the runaround from our elected representatives.  Check out InstaPundit's PorkBusters Update:

So I made the call I suggested other folks make, calling my Congressman (Jimmy Duncan) to ask if he would be willing to forego some local pork (either the specific items identified earlier in this post or something else, maybe from this Knoxville News-Sentinel list) in order to fund Katrina relief.

I spoke to his budget analyst, who promised me a swift response -- by postal mail, as they don't do email. Hmm. I know that franked mail is "free," but it's not as cheap as email -- I think I just figured out another way for the Congress to save some money.

It sounds like we got a better deal.  Kennedy's man promised to respond by email.

Technorati tag:  porkbusters.

Update:  Now that we've done battle with the powers that be, it's time for relaxation with the purrers that be over at the Carnival of the Cats #67 at Watermark.

Update II: We couldn't resist the sheer poetry of Goomp's latest comment:

Still and all our elected reps and senators are a pretty slimy bunch of toads.

That's our Papa.

Identifying pork

Baby demonstrates derivation of political budgetary term "earmark" (inset, upper right). The Babe got his the old-fashioned way:  He earned it in battle. Livestock usually get theirs at the hand of ranchers and farmers who earmark them for identification purposes. Politicians and their media watchdogs use the term metaphorically to refer to the allocation of benefits for a specific use or owner.

"An earmark can be any item in an appropriations bill that designates funds for a specific purpose.  If a project circumvents established budgetary procedures it is considered pork," explains Citizens Against Government Waste. "To earmark is to 'designate (as funds) for a specific use or owner,' while pork barrel is 'a government project or appropriation yielding benefits to a political district and its political representative.' An earmark that gets funding through the established procedure is not necessarily a 'good' project, but since it does not meet the definition of pork, it does not get included in the Pig Book."

Doing our homework for when our senators' and representative's offices get back to us about those squealing budgetary items for Chelsea roadway and bridge projects own the street from where we live, we found more federal money and more related projects than identified in our initial research yesterday from that "sweeping" six-year federal highway bill passed by the House last March. Updates as of August 12, 2005 from the "Database of Earmarks in Conference Agreement to the [House] Transportation Bill State by State Comparison," from Taxpayers for Common Sense [via Rob of The Onlne Magazine formerly known as Rob's Blog via Technorati]. As compared to the single $8,000,000 item for Chelsea Street Bridge reconstruction we found yesterday, there are three Chelsea-related items as follows:

#2592  $9,000,000  Chelsea Street Bridge Reconstruction [no city]  High Priority

#3538  $2,000,000  Chelsea Roadway Improvements  [Chelsea] High Priority

#4265  $6,000,000  Reconstruct Chelsea Street Bridge in Boston [Boston]  High Priority

All we had found yesterday, in a Boston Herald article from last March, was "Chelsea Street Bridge -- $8 million." [Note: #3538 above for "Chelsea Roadway Improvements" may be unrelated to the bridge. We'll try to find out when our leaders' offfices return our calls.]

In the larger view, statewide, there are earmark and bottom-line differences between the March House bill and the final conference agreement:

Earmarks: 90 vs. 127. Difference = 37 added on after the bill was passed

Bottom line: $223,870,000 vs. $332,486,000. Difference = $108,616,000 added on

A million here, a million there . . . What about these earmarks, Messrs. Kennedy, Kerry and Capuano? We must keep our Citizens Against Government Waste checklist handy when they call.  As we noted yesterday, CAGW defines pork-barrel projects as "those that get federal funding by circumventing established budgetary procedures," resulting in a breakdown in accountability.  To qualify as pork and merit inclusion in the Pig Book, a project must meet at least one of CAGW’s seven criteria, but most satisfy at least two:

Requested by only one chamber of Congress;
Not specifically authorized;
Not competitively awarded;
Not requested by the President;
Greatly exceeds the President’s budget request or the previous year’s funding;
Not the subject of congressional hearings; or
Serves only a local or special interest.

Last year's $1 million for Chelsea Street Bridge project funding -- appropriated under  Homeland Security --  was pork under CAGW criteria because it was requested by only one chamber of Congress, the House. We hope to get some answers about this year's appropriations in the coming day or so.

Update:  Early afternoon Tuesday, and it looks like not a single senator nor representative contacted by bloggers has committed to cutting significant pork projects in their district or state. If we're reading The Truth Laid Bear's "Congressional Contact Status" page correctly, it looks like some blogger(s) have already contacted our own Kennedy, Kerry and Capuano, but there are no links to the specific blogs of those who made contact. Tuck, Goomp and Susan say we're dreamin' if we think they'll return our calls.  'Guess it's up to us to wear out our dialing finger. We want that InstaLink, after all. Speaking of which, here's The Professor's latest take:

Howard Kurtz has picked up on the porkbusters effort and given it an extensive plug, though he's pretty skeptical as to whether it will make a difference.

He may be right, of course, but it seems to me that we need to try. I also think that pork-barreling thrives through lack of transparency and scrutiny, and that we can work on that. Transparency and scrutiny are what the blogosphere is best at.

We're with you and The Bear, Professor. And listen to this update just in at InstaPundit:

Mark Tapscott says the porkbusters approach is gaining momentum and notes Congressional action and media agreement.

We'll check that out and write more here later.

Technorati tag:  porkbusters.

They never call, they never write

"As of the moment, over $13 billion in pork projects have been listed by bloggers over at the PorkBusters page. (Take that, Tom Delay!)," writes InstaPundit, reminding us to keep on keeping on:

But remember -- follow-through is everything here. Don't just list your project: Call your Senators and Representative and ask them what to do about it, then post their responses on your blog, and link 'em at the PorkBusters page.

When you do that, send me a link to your post with the subject line "Pork Response" and I'll link it.

We've left voicemail at the local offices of Rep. Michael E. Capuano and Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry. 'Guess we'll just have to wait for that link from the big guy.

Update:  We guess we know where Rep. Capuano stands. 'Just found this quotation in a press release from his office last March announcing House passage of the $284 billion six-year surface transportation bill, "The Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users":

"Despite the fact that many members of Congress have renewed concerns over the cost overruns associated with the Central Artery/Tunnel Project as well as concerns over the ongoing problems associated with leaks, we were able to secure record funding for the Commonwealth's transportation infrastructure," stated Congressman Capuano, who is a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Technorati tag:  porkbusters.

Why is this project pork?

Citizens Against Government Waste invites you to search for what they consider pork projects in this handy feature that brought up a portion of our own Chelsea Street Bridge repair appropriated under the Homeland Security budget for FY 2005.

Everything you ever wanted to know about pork is just a couple of clicks away. We must admit we hadn't thought a lot about it other than an occasional grunt of disapproval. But Citizens Against Government Waste is on the case with their 2005 Congressional Pig Book. Presumably that $1 million for the Chelsea Street Bridge (chart below) appropriated under Homeland Security for FY 2005 is water over the dam -- slops over the sty fence?

NBR, H = No Budget Request, only requested by the House, in this Citizens Against Government Waste pork citation of $1,000,000 budgeted under Homeland Security for work on the Chelsea Street Bridge for FY 2005.

Why does CAGW consider that $1 million of federal funding for our bridge pork?  They explain:

The pork label is a result of how a project receives funding and is not a subjective judgment of a project’s worth. While CAGW is not judging the merit of projects included in our Pig Book, the point remains that many of these projects are local projects.  If a local project receives federal funding it should be acquired through the federal competitive system. If members of Congress insist on skirting the rules to get funding for a project, even for a seemingly important project, the resulting breakdown in accountability throws open the door to almost any kind of project.

Pork-barrel projects are those that get federal funding by circumventing established budgetary procedures.To qualify as pork and merit inclusion in the Pig Book, a project must meet at least one of CAGW’s seven criteria.

The Chelsea Street Bridge project funding for FY 2005 was pork under their criteria because it was requested by only one chamber of Congress. Now what about that $8 million we wrote about in our previous post for FY 2006?  Is that NBR, H? Was it appropriated for HS?  Back to the googleboard.

Technorati tag:  porkbusters.

Pork Chops Taxachusetts Style

Stacy Tabb's logo for InstaPundit's and New Zealand Bear's PorkBusters blogathon.

We laughed at Rep. Markey's spokesman when he acknowledged there may be pork in other parts of the country, "But I don't think it applies to our projects." Now we have to laugh at ourselves. Googling for local pork to call to the attention of our own Representative and Senators as part of InstaPundit's and New Zealand Bear's PorkBusters blogathon, we found ourselves thinking the same thing. That sweeping six-year federal highway bill passed by the House last March -- the one that includes a bike trail on Cape Cod -- also includes $8 million to repair the Chelsea Street Bridge.* We're talking a key link in a major route between the north shore and Boston, a bridge that must be opened and closed frequently to allow the passage of oil tankers up and down the Creek. It's just down the pike, a ten-minute walk from here. But back to the subject at hand, pork projects in the 8th District. . . Well, that was easy. This from the August 4 Boston Herald:

Citizens Against Government Waste reported that the 2005 Homeland Security Appropriations Act funded 64 earmarked projects, a 256 percent increase over the 2004 bill. The fiscal watchdog group put the Homeland pork price tag at $1.72 billion. Among their favorites - and ours - were three special port security grants totaling $208,100 to Premier Yachts, Inc, which runs those charming dinner cruises on the Odyssey in Boston Harbor (and similar wining and dining ventures in Chicago and Washington, D.C.). You'd think a company which had revenues of $40 million in 2003 would be able to find $200,000 from its own budget to keep its paying customers safe. But why do that when the taxpayers will foot the bill?

Indeed. Click here to add a slab of your own pork to the cracklin' pile.

Technorati tag:  porkbusters.

*Update: EGAD. Citizens Against Government Waste considers our Chelsea Street Bridge project pork -- for FY 2004 -- after all. Here's their rationale.

Where's the pork?

"The Poker Player in Chief has snookered the dems once again," we i-mailed our sis this afternoon:

We: I think the media still don't get the great poker move the Prez just made. In my view, he's played the big card, but no one has noticed yet. Big anti-New-Deal help for NOLA (school vouchers, let up on environmental regulation, enterprise zones and such) PLUS . . .

She: The media made up their mind many years ago. Please don't confuse them with the facts.

We: NO NEW TAXES (read his lips) . . . trim the pork instead, you losers. I heard one of them -- Malvin Kalb, I think -- claiming that only since last week or so, when they discovered how inept GW was in responding to Katrina, did the media finally wake up and start criticizing the President.

She: I don't want to talk about it.

We: LOL. Nothing to talk about.

She: As with Richard Nixon . . . history will vindicate GW.

We: I think so.

She: It may not come in his lifetime or ours, but we know what we know. Well, I gotta go. I'm mighty hungry.

Speaking of which, InstaPundit smells pork:

The obvious next step is for local bloggers to call their Senators/Representative on Monday and ask if they'll vote to cut this (or, failing that, can identify other cuts they will support) -- then to post the response on their blog. I suspect that members of Congress will pay at least some attention to requests from local bloggers.

One of his readers, Corporate Collections, has already done the homework for us Taxachusetts residents but notes that one man's pork is another's piece of the pie:

"Are there things in other parts of the country that people label pork? Sure," said Joe Dalton, a spokesman for US Representative Edward J. Markey, a Malden Democrat whose district includes Waltham. "But I don't think it applies to our projects."

No one said cutting pork was going to be easy.

Update:  Check out PorkBusters Central at The Truth Laid Bear:

All Pork: $ 870,276,071 in pork identified so far.

How are we going to mobilize the blogosphere in support of cuts in wasteful spending to support Katrina relief?" asks InstaPundit. "Here's the plan. Identify some wasteful spending in your state or (even better) Congressional District. Put up a blog post on it. Go to N.Z. Bear's new PorkBusters page and list the pork, and add a link to your posr. Then call your Senators and Representative." Logo by Stacy Tabb.

Sooey!

Technorati tag: porkbusters.