Some Congresscritters Used Earmarks to Gussy Up Own Neighborhoods

February 7, 2012

The Washington Post reported that a number of our representatives in Congress have used earmarks to gussy up their own neighborhoods. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could take other people’s money to increase your own property values and make your neighborhood a better place to live?

A U.S. senator from Alabama directed more than $100 million in federal earmarks to renovate downtown Tuscaloosa near his own commercial office building. A congressman from Georgia secured $6.3 million in taxpayer funds to replenish the beach about 900 feet from his island vacation cottage. A representative from Michigan earmarked $486,000 to add a bike lane to a bridge within walking distance of her home.
Thirty-three members of Congress have directed more than $300 million in earmarks and other spending provisions to dozens of public projects that are next to or within about two miles of the lawmakers’ own property, according to a Washington Post investigation.
Under the ethics rules Congress has written for itself, this is both legal and undisclosed. (Read More)

There’s an infographic here if you;d like to see if your representative has been in on the action.

Speaking of earmarks, Maggie’s Notebook has an in-depth article on the earmark “moratorium” and how Congress works around it.

Tags: congress, earmarks

5 Responses to Some Congresscritters Used Earmarks to Gussy Up Own Neighborhoods

Joeph Hall on February 7, 2012 at 2:03 pm
Some politicians have gone to jail for similar activities! I’m sure that congress has a special policy to protect them from prosecution in situations like this!
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Marilyn on February 7, 2012 at 2:42 pm
Anyone notice that more than half the featured congress members are REPUBLICAN?
If people are looking to the Republican party for the repair of our country, they’d better look twice.
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- Marilyn on February 8, 2012 at 1:46 pm
  Just pointing out that the “rank-and-file” politicians are bad on both sides of the aisle, and ALL of them need to be cleaned out. Neither of the major parties is worth a dime in my book. One should have to pass a test on the US Constitution in order to be in political office, and one should be barred from politics if one is a lawyer. It is the lawyers who have taken this country farthest away from its roots.
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  - andy42302 on February 9, 2012 at 1:53 am
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    One should have to pass a test on the US Constitution in order to be in political office, and one should be barred from politics if one is a lawyer.
    I’m beginning to understand why that after every time I log onto LC, I feel a need to go and wash the stupid off of me. I mean, lord knows that the last thing we need as a lawmaker would be something like a lawyer. And who exactly is suppose to administer these Constitution test? Who’s going to write these test? Let’s see, uh, it can’t be a lawmaker because they’ve yet to taken the test. It’s already been made clear that those educated on law are out. Oh, I know, how about SCOTUS? But wait, that would kinda contradict those “balances of power” that’s in that thing called a Constitution. And what do they know about the Constitution anyway? If they knew anything, everything that came before them would be an open and shut 9-0 vote.
    This might sound a bit corny but how about actually doing something like abiding by the Constitution and honoring the elected people that by the Constitution, were put in office?
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andy42302 on February 8, 2012 at 10:17 am
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Marilyn, while teabaggers will never admit it, the GOP is pretty much known as The Party of Pork (aka earmarks). And this has a lot to do with their leader and for over 3 decades as a U.S. Sen, Mitch McConnell, who has petty much become known as the King of Pork. Mitch has been able to be reelected because Kentuckians have become accustom to him “bringing home the bacon”. And this isn’t simply an opinion but can be validated over and over with years and years of earmarks for KY and KY cities.
Now I realize that you can easily come up with a couple gazillion example of where the Dems are equally guilty but that’s not my point. Mitch has brought the science out of doling out earmarks to a new level. It has become what Washington is all about. It’s about how well a representative can allocate tax dollars to their constituents. Granted, they can be as destructive to the country as they want but as long as they keep supplying the pork, those at home will keep taking it and when it comes election time, they certainly don’t want to bite the hand that feeds them.
For more insight to what I’m talking about, you might want to do a bit of research on the infamous “bridge to nowhere”.
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