2015 Citizens Against Government Waste ‘Pig Book’

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) puts out an annual Pig Book; a compilation of the year’s biggest porkers (spenders) in government.  Go to their site and read over some of the ways in which elected officials spend our money.

Take your blood pressure meds before you read this shit. This is the reason why this country has such a high national debt; because of the feckless assholes in Congress.

From Fox News.

The government plans to spend $4 million on “aquatic plant control,” $15 million for a program boosting Pacific salmon populations and $120 million for a tank upgrade military leaders don’t want, in a budget one watchdog says violates a ban on such spending.

These are just a few of the questionable spending items in the annual congressional “Pig Book” report, released Wednesday by Citizens Against Government Waste. The study catalogues what the group says are pork-barrel spending projects in fiscal 2015.

And despite Congress enacting a supposed moratorium on earmarks starting in 2011, the study found the price tag of these pet projects has continued to soar. While the number of earmarks has dipped since last year, the cost reportedly jumped from $2.7 billion to $4.2 billion.

“Even though a single earmark would violate the moratorium, it is particularly worrisome to see such a significant increase in the cost of earmarks,” the report said.

Among the earmarks the group identifies is a $15 million grant for the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF), established in 2000 to “reverse the declines of Pacific salmon and steelhead, supporting conservation efforts in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska.”

The report points to Senate Appropriations Committee member Patty Murray, D-Wash., as the likely champion of that item.

The report also highlights $120 million for an upgrade of the M1 Abrams tank, a project assigned a number of earmarks despite being opposed by senior Pentagon officials. The CAGW notes that suppliers for the tank are spread across the country, which it says helps explain why it garners widespread support.

The “Pig Book” was released at a press conference Wednesday morning with a series of high-profile speakers including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa. CAGW’s mascot, a pig named PigFoot, was also in attendance.

……The group says not only have earmarks persisted in congressional budgets, but transparency has only gotten worse.

“It’s more behind the scenes,” CAGW President Tom Schatz told Fox News.

There’s a ton of obscene waste, pork, and earmarks they could cut, but instead they feed the maws of an out of control welfare state.

The trouble is, no matter who we elect or what promises they make, this shit never ends.