Redstate

"President Bush said Friday he would use his power to veto spending bills if Congress does not cut the federal budget as he has asked. In over five years in office, Bush has never vetoed any bill. But he said that restraining spending was crucial to cutting the deficit in half by 2009 as he has promised. `If necessary, I will enforce spending restraint through the exercise of the veto,' the president said."

About the Congress (or as Jack Abramoff called it, "The Favor Factory")

On a mountaintop above old coal seams that once fueled West Virginia's economy, a gleaming steel-and-glass research center is taking shape, its winged design and 120-foot data tower visible for miles.

The $136 million building is being built with taxpayers' money for the Institute for Scientific Research, a nonprofit group launched by the local congressman, Democrat Alan Mollohan, and funded almost entirely through provisions he put into annual spending bills.

A 12-term congressman, Mr. Mollohan sits on the House Appropriations Committee, a panel that disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff dubbed the "favor factory." Working with fellow West Virginian Sen. Robert Byrd, Mr. Mollohan has steered at least $178 million to nonprofit groups in his district over the past five years using "earmarks" -- special-interest provisions that are slipped into spending bills to direct money to pet projects.

The money has brought more than jobs and building projects to his district. It has formed and financed a tight-knit network of nonprofit institutions in West Virginia that are run by people who contribute regularly to Mr. Mollohan's campaigns, political-action committee and a family foundation.

APRIL 17, 2006


Washington Outlook


Edited by Mike McNamee

This Train Is Really Defying Gravity

If Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid has his way, someday a superfast hovering train will whisk tourists from family-friendly Disneyland to the what-happens-here-stays-here city, Las Vegas. But so far, the Nevada senator's fascination with magnetic levitation -- the futuristic technology that would power the train across the desert at 300 mph -- has managed only to levitate a steady stream of money out of the federal budget: $54 million and counting.

Few others are climbing aboard. The Transportation Dept. rejects MagLev for its steep price tag, which a 2005 study says eclipses the cost of current high-speed rail by "fourfold to ninefold." Even Nevada's other senator, Republican John Ensign, questions the value of spending an estimated $12 billion or more on a 269-mile Anaheim-to-Vegas train line.

But Reid has pressed ahead, earmarking $9 million between 2000 and 2004 and winning a $45 million authorization in last year's federal transportation bill. It's just one small example of how congressional leaders can keep projects alive and how difficult it will be for reformers to stamp out earmarks -- the hidden pots of cash that lawmakers tuck into spending bills for favorite projects or constituents.

MagLev, which uses the attraction and repulsion of powerful magnets to power a train hovering inches off the track, enjoyed a brief burst of federal support in the 1990s. Clintonites praised it as a new and efficient option for short-range travel. But since 2001 the Bush Administration has not sought funding for MagLev projects. "The Administration believes that the money could be better spent on other transportation needs," says Steven Kulm, a Federal Railroad Administration spokesman.

But with Reid's help, MagLev boosters have kept hope alive. So far, they've spent $7 million on preconstruction engineering studies, and they're pushing for Congress to appropriate the $45 million it O.K.'d last year. The California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission wants to leverage federal dollars with tax-exempt bonds and private equity. It has partnered with American Magline Group, many of whose corporate members -- General Atomics, Hirschfeld Steel, and Parsons Transportation Group, among others -- would help build the high-speed train.

Backers argue that the project is crucial for the future of transportation. "I don't know if anyone accused President Eisenhower of pork when he created the interstate highway system," says Neil Cummings, president of American Magline. Jim Manley, a spokesman for Reid, says a high-speed train would ease congestion at Las Vegas McCarran International Airport. "It's a good project," says Manley.

Nonsense, says Keith Ashdown, vice-president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a group that tries to limit federal spending. MagLev is "a train to nowhere," says Ashdown. "We're wasting tens of millions of dollars on a project that nobody believes will be built except Harry Reid."

But Reid's faith in MagLev has been a plus for him: Companies and individuals tied to the project have given him $28,749 in campaign funds since 1999, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. And with Ensign facing his first reelection campaign, MagLev fans are opening their checkbooks for him, to the tune of $23,248. For now, MagLev keeps hovering along.

By Eamon Javers

The federal government awards roughly $300 billion in grants annually to 30,000 different organizations across the United States, according to the General Services Administration.  This bill would require the Office of Management and Budget to establish and maintain a single public Web site that lists all entities receiving federal funds, including the name of each entity, the amount of federal funds the entity has received annually by program, and the location of the entity.  All federal assistance must be posted within 30 days of such funding being awarded to an organization.

"This public database will provide transparency to federal spending and will provide an important weapon taxpayers can use to hold the government accountable.  The database also would help to reduce fraud, abuse and misallocation of federal funds by requiring greater accounting of federal expenditures," Dr. Coburn said.  "Every citizen in this country, after all, should have the right to know what organizations and activities are being funded with their hard-earned tax dollars."

 

"At the very least, taxpayers deserve to know where their money is being spent," Senator Obama said.  "This common-sense legislation would shine a bright light on all federal spending to help prevent tax dollars from being wasted. If government spending can't withstand public scrutiny, then the money shouldn't be spent."

 

Over the past year, the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management on which Dr. Coburn serves as chairman has uncovered tens of billions of dollars in fraud, abuse and wasteful spending, ranging from expensive leasing schemes to corporate welfare to bloated bureaucracy.

 

"This database would ensure such spending is better tracked and the public can hold policy makers and government agencies accountable for questionable spending decisions," Dr. Coburn said.  "If enacted, this legislation will finally ensure true accountability and transparency in how the government spends our money, which will hopefully lead to more fiscal responsibility by the federal government."

From the Coalition

Americans for Prosperity Foundation, Allies Kick Off "Ending Earmarks Express" on Capitol Hill - Surrounded by sign-waving grassroots supporters, the Americans for Prosperity Foundation today kicked off its nationwide "Ending Earmarks Express" grassroots bus tour by shining a spotlight on a $3 million earmark that Congress recently approved for a new state-of-the-art 11,000-square-foot gym exclusively for U.S. House staffers.

Club for Growth's Pat Toomey on the line-item veto in the Philadelphia Inquirer, "Line-item veto is needed to curb runaway spending"