The conservative watchdog group CCAGW cannot support THESE Republicans' spending -- how can supposed conservatives?

-Moved from the dead blog (on which many of my posts more heavily revealed my liberal leanings) to this more politically relevant (and balanced) one.-


The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. (They advertisize their organization as non-partisan, but they promote obviously conservative issues that are unconnected with eliminating government waste --- like eliminating inheritence taxes --- on their website.)

Sen. John McCain wrote in the preview to CCAGW's 2005 edition of their "Pork books" series (uncovering government waste), "In 1994 there were 1,318 pork-barrel projects; in fiscal year 2005 there are an estimated 13,000 pork-barrel projects, an increase of 886 percent [over 1994]."

Forbes covered the book in an article on their website. "Pork-barrel spending for fiscal 2005 reached a record $27.3 billion, according to CAGW, a 19% increase over last year.

...
In what areas of the government is pork growing the fastest? CAGW points to homeland security, which saw pork increase 306% this year to $1.7 billion; energy and water, which increased 163% to $1.9 billion; and labor/health and human services, which increased 80% to $1.7 billion."

In a press release by CCAGW on August 5, 2005, the CCAGW Urged the President Bush to veto the latest Republican Pork package, the Highway Bill.

The CCAGW, The Taxpayers for Common Sense Action Group, The National Taxpayers Union, The Club for Growth, The Americans for Prosperity, and FreedomWorks all agreed in their letter to President Bush that the bill should have been vetoed. The groups pointed out that there are nearly 6,500 pork-barrel projects in the bill that total more than $24 billion, or nearly 9 percent of the total spending.

“President Bush had already compromised by raising his spending limit from $256 billion to $284 billion,” CCAGW President Tom Schatz said. “Using budget gimmickry to raise the real cost to $295 billion makes a mockery of the President’s call for fiscal restraint.”

“Unbelievably, President Bush has described this transportation bill as ‘fiscally responsible,’ ” Schatz said. “A bill with such waste and budget gimmickry is not deserving of such a term and should be vetoed.”