Ron Paul's Pure Pork

Even Fox News thinks he's "having his cake and eating it too" by giving constituents more earmark money than any member of Congress, but Ron Paul insists it's all in the name of his libertarian beliefs.

It's "like a tax credit," he explains about the $73 million for his district. "And I vote for all tax credits, no matter how silly they might seem. If I can give you any of your money back, I vote for it. So, if I can give my district any money back, I encourage that.

"But, because the budget is out of control, I haven't voted for an appropriation in years--if ever."

Paul, who insists that John McCain is just "grandstanding" in his opposition to pork, was then asked "who proposes the bridge or the highway or the school? How does that even get in there?"

"I have no idea," says the Congressman who has deeply felt ideas about everything else. "But the most important thing is to have transparency."

Is that clear?

Oink

As John McCain rails like King Lear, Barack Obama is doing Scarlett O'Hara ("I'll think about that tomorrow") over Congressional pork in the new budget.

Literally. The President is scheduled to speechify about wasteful spending today after his press secretary promised yesterday, "The rules of the road going forward for those many appropriations bills that will go through Congress and come to his desk will be done differently."

Getting between a member of Congress and meat for the voters back home is a dangerous move for a president, no matter how high his approval ratings.

"I don't think the White House has the ability to tell us what to do," House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer huffs, adding, "I, philosophically, believe that it would be an undermining of the Article I responsibilities given to the Congress of the United States if it were to abandon its right to add items that it believes are priorities for our country...That's our responsibility, and we ought to keep that responsibility."

So taxpayers will keep underwriting the promotion of astronomy in Hawaii, improving blueberry production in Georgia, cricket control in Utah and all those other vital expenditures in a crashing economy.

“When do we turn off the spigots?” McCain wailed on the Senate floor yesterday. “Haven’t we learned anything? Bills like this jeopardize our future.”

But, until some form of public financing for elections kicks in, projects like tattoo removal for former gang members will be a priority for insuring the future of his Congressional colleagues.

No Bailouts for Jobless and Homeless

In the porkathon to pass the bailout bill, Republicans balked at two measures--to extend jobless benefits for the unemployed and allow bankruptcy judges to reduce penniless homeowners' mortgages.

So much for Main Street, where signs of a 1930s Depression are cropping up everywhere:

*New figures show 760,000 lost jobs this year. Of the 9.5 million Americans out of work, two million have been for more than six months. Nearly 6.1 million people are working part-time because worsening business conditions have led to fewer hours and less pay.

*With bank-account insurance increased from $100,000 to $250,000, the potential liability of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for failing banks is now estimated to be $1.1 trillion. The FDIC's fund currently has about $45 billion, a five-year low.

*The number of Americans on food stamps, growing every month, was 28.6 million in June, according to latest government figures, reaching the level of late 2005, when Katrina and other hurricanes caused widespread suffering.

*Homeless families in Massachusetts motels have increased from 17 to 588 in the past year, with another 1,800 in shelters.

In my Depression childhood, everyone in our neighborhood was poor and many penniless until FDR and the New Deal began to bail us out with relief programs. In the 21st century, the government so far is concentrating on banks, investment houses and hedge funds.

We'll soon find out if the trickle-down theory works.

Capitol Hill Sausage Makers

Watching Congress this week brings back childhood memories of living next to a frankfurter factory. From dawn until dark, trucks backed up to loading docks, where men in long aprons with red and brown smears hauled haunches and pushed bins inside. What went on inside was a mystery, but the stains and smells made it clear that flesh was being hacked and ground to bits around the clock. Spicy seasonings could never mask the reek from that building.

The $800 billion-plus sausage that may emerge from the House today has been stuffed with so much pork and other red meat for voters that it's hard to keep track of the scraps, including tax relief for motor racing tracks, extending restaurant improvement credits and exempting from excise tax wooden arrow shafts for use by children.

"I am hopeful that there will be bipartisan, majority support for this bill that is critical to stabilizing our nation's economy for all working Americans," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, said last night in anticipation of the debate that begins this morning.

The vote is expected to be close on what Paul Krugman calls "originally the Paulson plan, then the Paulson-Dodd-Frank plan, and now, I guess, the Paulson-Dodd-Frank-Pork plan (it’s been larded up since the House rejected it on Monday).

"I hope that it passes, simply because we’re in the middle of a financial panic, and another no vote would make the panic even worse. But that’s just another way of saying that the economy is now hostage to the Treasury Department’s blunders."

Pass the mustard.

Senate's Grumpiest Old Man Faces Charges

The proponent of the "Bridge to Nowhere" may be going somewhere after all. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska was indicted on seven counts of corruption today involving doubling the size of his home at the expense of lobbyist friends.

They literally raised the roof of what is called Stevens' chalet by lifting the building onto stilts and putting an entirely new first floor under it.

For someone of my generation, the decline and fall of the irascible 84-year-old is a sad reminder that aging is no protection against self-destructive behavior.

Stevens started out as a World War II pilot who received the Distinguished Flying Cross for two years in the China-India-Burma Theater, supporting the "Flying Tigers" and Chinese combat units behind enemy lines.

Now, after 38 years in the Senate, during which he has grown increasingly ornery in pursuit of pork for his constituents, the Alaska Senator will be going on trial for making false statements on his Senate financial forms.

Long before he faces a jury, those constituents will be rendering a verdict on Stevens' continuing in the Senate in November.

While West Virginia's Robert Byrd, who turns 91 that month, is still going strong, the Stevens indictment raises questions about term limits in the Senate. Maybe 40 years is enough.

Pork a la Lieberman

The most sanctimonious Senator of them all, who is supporting earmark-hater John McCain for president, has a ravenous appetite for the stuff, according to a new report showing Congress on an election-year binge despite all promises to the contrary.

According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, Joe Lieberman has led the way in looting the new Defense Authorization bill by participating in 14 requests worth more than $292 million.

But he is not alone in grabbing money for voters back home. "Both parties talk a good game on cutting earmarks, but at first opportunity, the House larded up," said Stephen Ellis of the watchdog group. "This is just another broken promise."

Arizona Congressman Jeff Flake points out that the budget system lets lawmakers use earmarks not only to woo voters but draw campaign contributions from recipient organizations and their lobbyists in what Taxpayers for Common Sense describes as the "pay-to-play system."

The new data show most members of the House Armed Services Committee getting financial returns from companies that benefit from being showered with taxpayer money.

"It's corrupting. It's a much bigger problem than the sum of its parts. It's much more than just waste," says Flake, a critic of both parties. "One good defense earmark can yield tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions."

Meanwhile, fellow Arizona John McCain is running for president on the issue, while his chief cheerleader Joe Lieberman is gorging on one bill alone for more than a quarter of a billion dollars.

Democracy at Work

Our taxpayer dollars were spent yesterday embarrassing Larry Craig and humiliating Roger Clemens by people who are siphoning off millions of it to reelect new members of their own party.

That snapshot of Congress comes from the lead items on the website of The Hill, which chronicles the workings of our government:

"The Senate Ethics Committee publicly admonished Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) late Wednesday for attempting to use his public office to get out of his arrest last summer in a Minneapolis airport restroom sting..."

"Roger Clemens, the New York Yankees’ star pitcher, had barely taken his seat Wednesday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee when Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) stunned an already tense hearing into near silence...'Someone isn’t telling the truth,' said Waxman in his opening statement in a hearing that lasted most of the day..."

"Democratic leaders have sent tens of millions of dollars to freshman lawmakers’ districts in hope of protecting the party’s newfound majority..."

There was other news, too:

"President Bush on Wednesday signed the $152 billion stimulus package that he hopes will jump-start the economy in the coming months..."

"Congressional Democrats headed into another clash with President Bush over torture as the Senate cleared a bill Wednesday to force spy agencies to comply with the military’s ban on waterboarding and other harsh techniques..."

"A House committee is expected to vote soon on a program that would allow Hill staff working late to take taxis home and have the cab fares paid out of office expenses..."

It's good to know that our elected representatives are hard at work.