First, we have a $1M earmark for the “Center for Instrumented Critical Infrastructure” - a center that doesn’t even exist.  The money is headed to John Murtha’s district.  Rep. Jeff Flake (AZ), who is one of the tax payers best friends in the House, pointed out the phantom center on the floor.  Alarmingly, Flake’s amendment to kill the funding failed by a 98-326 vote (Alabama’s entire delegation voted to keep the funding).  That’s right, 326 legislators voted to keep funding for a center that doesn’t even exist.  The money is actually going to a private firm - with financial ties to Murtha.

[T]he money is actually earmarked to Concurrent Technologies Corporation, a nonprofit technological consulting firm. A brief search of campaign finance records shows CTC President and CEO Daniel R. DeVos, of alternately Central City and Johnstown, Pa. has contributed $7,000 to Murtha’s reelection campaign since April 2002.

Meanwhile, we have the man who, along with Alabama’s Richard Shelby, is one of the most wasteful pork barrelers in the Senate: Don Young (AK).  Young has forgetting whose money he is playing with.

Rep. Don Young attacked his fellow Republicans on the House floor Wednesday, as he defended education funds allocated to his home state of Alaska.

“You want my money, my money,” Young stridently declared before warning conservatives that “those who bite me will be bitten back.”

Young took extreme exception to an amendment by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) to strike money in a spending bill for native Alaskan and Hawaiian educational programs.

Young really needs a re-education.  That is our money he is wasting.

Folks, there needs to be more anger over earmarks.  Yes, entitlements are a much bigger total dollar problem, but earmarks simply allow politicians to buy our votes with our own money - cheap incumbency insurance.  If they (the government) didn’t take so much from us in the first place then many of the things they fund could be paid for by the market.  The market is a much better determinant of what is justified than some politicians sitting in DC who are only concerned with how the money can be used to give them some good campaign fodder.

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This entry was posted by Brian on Friday, July 20th, 2007 at 5:20 am and is filed under Government Waste, Pork. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.