CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE 07/30/2013

Porker of the Month: Reps. Edwards & Johnson

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named Reps. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) Porkers of the Month for co-sponsoring H.R. 2617,  the Apollo Lunar Landing Legacy Act, to establish the Apollo Lunar Landing Sites National Historical Park on the Moon. Apparently not content to confine their legislating to this planetoid, Reps. Edwards and Johnson have gone where no member of Congress has gone before. H.R. 2617 would “preserve and protect for the benefit of present and future generations the nationally significant historic sites associated with the Historical Park.” In addition, the bill would require the Secretary of the Interior to submit the lunar landing site to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization for designation as a World Heritage Site. The costs of the park are not known, but they would likely be out of this world. For straying so far from reality’s orbit, wasting the taxpayers’ money on the paper and ink on which H.R. 2617 is written, and engaging in sheer “lunarcy,” Reps. Edwards and Johnson are the July, 2013 Porkers of the Month. Read more about the Porker of the Month.

CCAGW Alert: House to Vote on Price’s ObamaCare Bill

The House of Representatives is planning to vote the week of July 29 on Rep. Tom Price’s (R-Ga.) Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act (H.R. 2009). Under ObamaCare, the IRS – the same agency that has leaked confidential taxpayer information, targeted groups based on their political beliefs, and even told groups that they had to give up their First Amendment rights – stands to gain extensive new powers to collect Americans’ personal information. With a role in nearly 50 different aspects of the healthcare law, the IRS has already established an office dedicated to ObamaCare’s enforcement, which is headed by Sarah Hall Ingram who was in charge of the IRS’s tax-exempt division in 2010 when the agency began targeting groups opposed to President Obama’s agenda. Rep. Price’s bill would prevent the IRS from implementing or enforcing any provision of ObamaCare. If you haven’t already, make a contribution today to support CCAGW’s lobbying campaign to win passage of the Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act!

CCAGW Blasts 46 Republicans for Farm Bill Votes

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) this month released “Farm Vote Follies,” a list of the 46 Republican House members who abandoned the interests of taxpayers by voting against at least nine out of 16 reform amendments to the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013, better known as the 2013 Farm Bill. The legislation, which was defeated by a vote of 195-234 on June 20, failed to provide sufficient reform of the federal government’s labyrinthine, outdated, and wasteful agricultural policies, and several lawmakers offered worthy reform amendments, only to see their efforts shot down. In many cases, those amendments – which included reforms to the sugar program, which enriches a tiny number of sugar processors at the expense of consumers and sugar-using manufacturers; the Market Access Program, which pays for commodity producers to market their wares overseas and is currently paying for a reality television fashion show in India; and crop insurance, which cost taxpayers a record $14 billion in fiscal year 2012 – were defeated with an assist from Republicans whose putative fiscally conservative values vanished when opportunities to serve special interests arose. Read more about the “fiscal conservatives” who voted against Farm Bill reform.

CCAGW Touts New Study on Savings from $1 Coin

On July 22, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) joined CCAGW and the Dollar Coin Alliance to unveil a study projecting that American taxpayers could save $13.8 billion by transitioning from a $1 note to a $1 coin. Time for Change: Modernizing to the Dollar Coin Saves Taxpayers Billions, authored by Aaron Klein, former Chief Economist for the Senate Banking Committee and Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, not only forecasts that the $1 coin would save nearly three times more than other recent estimates, the study also provides a detailed analysis of the $1 coin’s benefits to small and large businesses, the environment, and the millions of Americans who are blind or visually-impaired. The study’s unveiling follows the reintroduction in the Senate last month of the Currency Optimization, Innovation and National Savings (COINS) Act, which would replace the $1 bill with a $1 coin. “Modernizing our currency just makes sense,” said former Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), Honorary Co-Chair of the Dollar Coin Alliance. “As Congress continues to look for ways to reduce the government’s deficit, we can’t afford to ignore the $13.8 billion that we’d save through currency reform. The $1 coin saves us billions without raising a single tax or cutting a single program.” Read more about the substantial savings the $1 coin would provide for taxpayers.