Ron Paul Is The Real Phony On Earmarks

Posted by Brian

Paul Submits Earmarks Into Favorable Bills, Then Abstains or Votes Against Them


Ron Paul was completely hypocritical in calling Rick Santorum "fake" while discussing earmarks in last night's debate.  With very little effort, it is easy to find that Ron Paul is no stranger to earmarks himself.

In 2011 Paul requested earmarks totaling $157 million, one of only four GOP House members to request earmarks. These included but were not limited to:

• $500K to widen a barge channel
• $4 million for visitor information stations, sidewalk repair, wheelchair ramps, and landscaping in Galveston, TX
• $1 million for sidewalks, wheelchair ramps, street signs, pedestrian lighting, bike racks, benches and trash cans in League City, TX
• $1.2 Million for a child day-care center

In 2010, he requested fifty-four earmarks, which totaled $398,460, 640, which included $2.5 million for trash cans, bike racks, and decorative street lighting in Baytown, TX. There were also $4.5 million requested for the Wharton County Youth Fair, $150,000 to create sustainable wetlands, $105 thousand to reduce the drop-out rate and enhance educational attainment in Victoria, TX, just to name a few.  These and many others are all on Ron Paul's website (click here for link).

Whether you consider these earmarks a good use of taxpayer funds is not the point. I don't think that all earmarks are waste or pork.  It is a case-by-case basis. The issue is the disingenuousness of Ron Paul holding himself up as a paragon on Congressional earmarks, and berating his opponents, while being guilty of doing that which he condemns.

What's worse is that he uses deception to hide his use of earmarks.  Ron Paul will submit earmark requests and have them attached to legislation of which is passage is a certainty.  Then when the bill comes up for a vote, Ron Paul will either abstain, or vote against the bill.  In this way he can claim that "I've never voted for an earmark", while bringing home the pork to his district.

If anyone is "phony" on earmarks it is Ron Paul and his attempted deception of constituents and supporters.

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The Ron Paul Two-Step On Earmarks

Posted by Brian
Ron Paul says he has never voted for an earmark? Here are figures for just 2010:
      Name                           ST     #      Total Cost        Solo    Solo Cost

Ron Paul (R-Texas)

TX

15

$17,113,000

6

$1,900,000

Source: OpenSecrets.org

The Hypocrisy of Congressman Ron Paul

Ron Paul has rarely been on my radar. Sure there were the anti-black/ anti-Semitic Newsletters which were published under his name (which he claimed he never read). And yes there were those really whacko public statements like; the federal reserve was behind Watergate, that Lincoln was wrong to push us into a Civil War over slavery, or his assertion that condemning the HAMAS terrorist rocket attacks promotes violence. But those items only suggest that the Texas Republican Congressman is a bigot as well as a bit of a lunatic, which not bad by today’s congressional standards.

Ron Paul is believed to be a “fiscal conservative” and if you ask him he will tell you that he has never voted for an earmark. That statement is 100% correct. What Paul does is to make sure that the earmarks he wants are put into a bill, and then he votes against the bill (my emphasis). Its the best of all possible worlds. He gets to bring home the bacon on a local basis and makes the anti-earmark claim on a national basis.

Read More at Red State

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Does Obama Really Want To Go There? Threatens Congress With "Naming Names" on Funding Requests

Posted by Brian

Barack Obama chiding Congress (read: Republicans) over not passing his "jobs" bill, and now threatening to make public special requests for spending and the persons who request them, is ballsy on its face.  Don't get me wrong.  I am all for transparency in how our money is spent.  The American people have been out of that loop for a long time.  Only during election seasons do we hear of some of the most outrageous pork barrel spending, generally used in attack ad on opponents.
My amusement at this is the outright hypocrisy of the occupant of the Oval Office.  He has essentially used the taxpayers money as a personal checking account to pay off political favors to unions, banks, corporate cronies, and just about anybody else who he thinks can benefit him politically.  His spending plans are increasing the nation's debt by an average of over $1.6 trillion per year.
What kind of pork has Obama passed in his budgets and stimulus?
Just to name a few, from the Wall Street Journal Online:

$1 million to upgrade the Los Angeles County Convention Center elevated "catwalk" for cameras and lighting; 
$350,000 for an Albuquerque, N.M., fitness center; 
$94 million for a parking garage at the Orange Bowl in Miami; 
$4.5 million for Gretna, Florida, to bottle water with recyclable bottles; 
$35 million music hall of fame in Florissant, Missouri, 
$3.1 million for a swimming pool in Tulsa


And let's not forget the over $500 million payoff to the now bankrupt Solyndra, the UAW payoff with the bailouts of the GM and Chrysler, Wall Street, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and so many others.
Does Obama really want to go down this path?

Name and Shame? Obama May Go Public with Lawmakers' Funding Requests

RICHARD A. BLOOM

President Obama may be heading for another showdown with Congress over spending.

Draft White House memo would require federal agencies to reveal special funding requests from members of Congress.

In a move that could escalate hostilities with Congress, President Obama may be planning to use his executive authority to publicize special funding requests that lawmakers make for pet projects.

A memo that the White House has floated on Capitol Hill would require executive branch agencies to make public any letter from a member of Congress seeking special consideration for any project or organization vying for government funding. National Journal obtained a draft copy of the executive memo.

Read More at National Journal

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