Clyburn Considered for Super-committee, ALG Blasts Congressman's Pay-to-Play Earmarks

"Clyburn's role on the super-committee would be to protect what he spent decades fighting for: pork-barrel spending." —ALG President Bill Wilson.

August 11^th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is reportedly considering Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) to be a delegate to the joint deficit reduction committee.  Today, Americans for Limited Government released a report entitled "Pay-To-Play Politics" which anoints Clyburn as the "King of Schemes."  President Bill Wilson released the following comments on the potential Clyburn super-committee appointment.

"James Clyburn's propensity for pay-to-play politics disqualifies him from serving on any committee tasked with reducing spending," Wilson said.

"Clyburn has earmarked over $200 million over the past six years, making him the biggest congressional spender in South Carolina," Wilson said.  "That includes a $3 million earmark to teach children to play golf after the center had renamed itself to the 'James E. Clyburn Golf

Center,' and built a statue in his honor."

"Clyburn's role on the super-committee would be to protect what he spent decades fighting for: pork-barrel spending," Wilson added.

Other earmarks included $54.4 million for South Carolina universities in return for tens of thousands of campaign contributions and even a transportation center named after Clyburn, $2.1 million for the city of Charleston that his cousin lobbied for who gave Clyburn $3,250 in campaign money, and $1.3 million to Palmetto Health in return for $9,500 in contributions.

That included $40 million to the South Carolina State University for the James E. Clyburn

University Transportation Center, where the congressman intends to house his official papers. 

The U.S. Department of Transportation cut off funding, and a federal audit was unable to determine how tax dollars had been spent.  Like federal auditors, a local paper had difficulty making sense of SCSU's finances. Records were disorganized and difficult to track down.44

Clyburn's transportation center was also investigated by the state Legislative Audit Council. Thirteen years after receiving the initial money, the center has still not been completed.

Wilson concluded, "Politicians who talk out of both sides of their mouths on 'pay-to-play' have no place on any committee that is supposed to be reducing the debt.  James Clyburn has been nothing but a hypocrite on this issue for his entire career." 

Attachments:

"James Clyburn: Pay-to-Play Politics," Americans for Limited Government Research Foundation, August 11^th, 2011 at www.getliberty.org/files/ClyburnPaytoPlay8-11-11.pdf .

ALG Blasts Clyburn Appointment to Super-committee

August 11^th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today condemned the appointment of Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) to be a delegate to the joint committee on deficit-reduction:

"This is like appointing Ben & Jerry's to a committee on nutrition.  James Clyburn has spent his entire career giving away earmarks in exchange for campaign contributions.  Clyburn is pay-to-play's king of schemes, and has earmarked over $200 million in just the past six years. 

"Clyburn's appointment tells the American people everything they need to know about the super-committee.  Its mission will not be to cut trillions of spending; it will be to protect Congress' pay-to-play schemes.  What a farce."

Attachments:

"Clyburn Considered for Super-committee, ALG Blasts Congressman's Pay-to-Play Earmarks," Americans for Limited Government, August 11^th, 2011 at http://getliberty.org/content.asp?pl=10&sl=5&contentid=740 .

"James Clyburn: Pay-to-Play Politics," Americans for Limited Government Research Foundation, August 11^th, 2011 at www.getliberty.org/files/ClyburnPaytoPlay8-11-11.pdf .

AUFC - Reps. Guinta, Bass Choose Party Loyalty Over NH Workers

NH Congressmen Help Kill Crucial Bridge Project Instead of Repealing Tax Cuts or Closing Tax Loopholes for Multi-millionaires

Washington, DC – Thanks to New Hampshire’s Reps. Guinta and Bass, repairs to the dangerous and overcrowded Memorial Bridge could be slowed or halted, altogether costing jobs in New Hampshire and Maine. In the dead of night last weekend, both the New Hampshire members of Congress chose to vote with their Republican colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives last weekend in favor of funding plan that takes away a $20 million grant to repair the bridge.

The bridge, which connects Kittery, Maine and Portsmouth, is an important driver of commerce and shopkeepers on either side of the bridge are worried that losing the grant could lead to shutting down the bridge, something they say is devastating for their businesses.

But instead of choosing to cut tax subsidies for oil and gas companies, a savings of $44 billion over 10 years, or making millionaire hedge fund managers pay the same tax rate as the people who clean their offices, which would net nearly $19 billion, Reps. Guinta and Bass and their Republican colleagues in Congress cancelled 76 transportation and economic development projects, including the bridge, slashing 25,000 new construction jobs in the process.

“This is a pretty stark example of Congressmen Bass and Guinta’s priorities,” said Tom McMahon, executive director of Americans United for Change. “Instead of promising to fix this and ‘find’ money elsewhere, they should have stood up for the people of New Hampshire. Reducing the deficit is job number one but cutting jobs, instead of oil and gas subsidies, and protecting millionaires’ paychecks, at the expense of people who are just trying to get to work, doesn’t say much for New Hampshire’s Members of Congress, but it may say a lot about them.”

AFP - Our Union Doesn't Need More Government

As I watched the President's speech I was struck by one thing - he still believes with all his being that more government is the solution to our problems and the hope for our future. 
President Obama identified job creation as his top overall priority and then laid out how he planned to create jobs and economic opportunity.

First, he spoke of new "investments" (the Left's term for new government spending) in renewable energy which is the radical environmental movement's holy mantra.  With gas now costing well over $3 per gallon across much of the nation and with utility bills increasing every month in our homes and businesses President Obama said he wants to pour billions into wind, solar, electric cars and other politically correct energy sources while keeping the government red tape and regulations in place that prevent new drilling for oil or mining for coal or new nuclear plant construction. 

Next, President Obama pledged to "invest" even more federal dollars on his education program called "Race to the Top" and he called for an "investment" in hiring at least 100,000 new teachers.  He told our children that "If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation...become a teacher.  Your country needs you."

I honor our teachers and the teaching profession.  In fact, two of my sisters and my sister-in-law taught in classrooms for many years.  But, the answer to our economic problems is not simply spending even more money on federal education programs that have not increased student performance in any nationally meaningful way. 

Then, President Obama called for our federal government to "redouble" spending on our infrastructure which is another tired, old liberal ideological axiom - when in doubt pour more pork-barrel programs that usually benefit allies or meet ideological litmus tests such as "high speed rail."

It was ironic to hear President Obama say that he wants 98% of Americans to have access to high-speed wireless internet coverage while at the same time his Federal Communications Commission bureaucrats are attempting to regulate the internet which will increase costs for Americans while lessening choices and discouraging private sector financial investment in one part of the economy where the free market has been allowed to create literally millions of jobs and billions in private wealth. 

He once again said he wants to spur job creation by conducting a "review of government regulations" but his own Environmental Protection Agency - the bureaucracy responsible for so many jobs being lost or not created - immediately responded that it was "confident" it would not need to alter a single current or pending rule.  Check out the Wall Street Journal editorial from January 24 that details the hypocrisy.  

 And, President Obama vowed to defend his health care takeover legislation that is going to create over 100 new government agencies or departments, add tens-of-thousands of new government bureaucrats, and increase government spending in the coming decade by hundreds-of-billions of dollars - all while raising health insurance costs for most Americans and limiting health care choices for our families. 

Oh yes, after signing legislation in December that kept the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts in place for Americans President Obama caved in to the Left and called for raising taxes on many of these same Americans in two years - after the 2012 election by the way.

There was some good news -- including a promise to cut corporate taxes that we hope is sincere, and an unambiguous promise to veto any bill with earmarks.  That's bad news for Harry Reid, who insisted this week that Senate Democrats would keep earmarking!
 
When I traveled all over the country on Ending Earmarks Express back in 2006, I never thought a Democratic president would promise to veto all earmarks.  It's remarkable proof that when we bring grassroots pressure to bear we can win.  And you can bet we'll do everything we can to make sure Obama keeps his promise to veto all earmarks.

There's so much more I could share with you but you get the point. 

Despite the President rhetoric in recent weeks his policies still demonstrate a commitment to more big government, big spending, heavy-handed liberalism. 

Over the last two years we have not really asked you to send the President a direct message.  But, on this morning after his state of the union speech let's tell President Obama that we have examined his policies for 2011 and that we're saying NO WAY CLICK HERE. 

At the same time, we'll also send a copy of your message to President Obama to your member of Congress so that they know the American people are not buying the President's same old "government knows best" budget-busting policies and that we expect Congress to stand up for our economic freedoms.

We've got a big year ahead of us.  It's time to get moving!

 

Tim Phillips

PS: CLICK HERE to send President Obama tell President Obama: Mr. President, we oppose your continued big government, big spending, heavy-handed liberal policies and we're still committed to changing our nation's direction.

One last thing, on this morning after the State of the Union speech, we want to hear your"state of the family" or"state of your business or job" -- please respond back and let me know what you're thinking as we move into the crucial early months of 2011.



Heritage: When will the lame duck Congress end?

One year ago, the Senate convened on Christmas Eve to pass the Obamacare bill. Despite an election which seemed to repudiate the direction our country was headed in, the lame duck Congress is still in session just a week before Christmas again this year.

What are they working on?

1. A two-year extension of the current tax rates which is going to be a bad deal for taxpayers as it is filled with hundreds of billions in subsidies and spending, with no long term certainty for our tax rates.

2. Ratification of the New START treaty with Russia. This treaty raises serious questions about verification as well as our ability to deploy an adequate missile defense system, not to mention the dangerous precedent of considering a major treaty in a lame duck session of Congress.

3. A pork-laden “omnibus” spending bill. It appears as though Senate Democrats will not bring this bill to the Senate floor.  But, it is written and available should they change their mind before they adjourn sometime next week.

Heritage continues to offer conservative solutions. So, I wanted to share two of our latest products with you.

First, is our vision to fix Medicare. Patient choice and market competition, along with strong budget controls, are the keys to reforming Medicare so that it will be available to future generations. And for those looking for guarantees—this paper details five principles on which future Medicare enrollees should be able to count.

Second, is a link to our Understanding America series, which has two new booklets available to read on What is America’s Role in the Word and Why Does Sovereignty Matter to America?

I hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas and joyous holiday season.