I know this is hard to believe, but there are actually some in Congress who believe we need MORE earmarks.  An article by Congressional Quarterly published  this week examined the distribution and process of earmarked dollars. They reported that in this years appropriation bills there were 5,670 earmarks totaling $4.2 billion; this doesn’t include an additional 1,000 earmarks worth $1.5 billion that had multiple sponsors.  Part of their report also highlighted the disparity between the earmarked dollars received by Democrat members, Republican members, African American members, and Hispanic members as they were ranked in that order from highest to lowest in average earmarked dollars received.

Congressional Black Caucus member Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) decided that it was a shame there was a difference between Caucasian members and African American Members. He proposed to close the earmark gap by creating two new spending panel seats on the House Committee on Appropriations. He said that “More black appropriators would be just a step to get at the inequities in the process”.  Basically affirmative action for earmarking.

The real inequity is the existence of an institutionalized process of wasting taxpayers money.  It still amazes me that the immediate response by many here in Congress is to address a disparity in earmarks by increasing the amount of earmarks for those whose average is lower rather than decreasing the average of those who get the most. 

Due to the incredible number of wasteful earmarks jammed into every spending bill that comes across the floor of the House, it is impossible for me to highlight each one for you. However, I try to bring those that are particularly egregious to your attention so you can see just exactly where your tax dollars are going. I recently came across this one and found it worth highlighting.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) apparently felt the transportation budget was big enough to support an earmark for the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. According to CBS News, the Skirball Cultural Center is managed by wealthy executives making six figures a year and grosses more than $885 million a year! Hardly a needy organization by any standard. 

When asked about the $550,000 price tag for this project, Mr. Waxman indicated that he felt the cost was mere pennies. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to realize that American taxpayers depend on those “pennies” and each one was earned through hard work.

I can’t decide what’s more disturbing: The fact that the earmark is in the transportation bill (which has nothing to do with the Skirball Cultural Center) or the lack of judgment it took to not use those funds for something more critical - like say bridge and infrastructure repair?

Regardless, thanks to your tax dollars, Los Angeles’ newest attraction now brings in over $16,000 in ticket sales a week. Will the average American taxpayer benefit at all from that profit?  I doubt it. 

Today the President vetoed the controversial SCHIP bill that passed the house by a vote of 265-159 last Tuesday.   The House will not take up a provision to override the veto until October 17th as Democrat leadership knows they don't have the votes (at least 15 short) and they hope that liberal groups can take the next 2 weeks to blast Republicans in their districts in hopes of persuading 15 members of Congress to switch their position.

As I have noted in earlier Blogs, no one has argued against the bill because they don’t want children’s healthcare.  In fact, the President has called for a $5 Billion increase in the program and I think children’s healthcare is something we can all get behind and support, but this is simply not a bill to provide healthcare to poor children.

SCHIP will cost the government over $4,000 per year for every newly insured child, compared to $2,300 per year to add a child to a private insurance plan. In order to disguise the $40 billion in spending the Senate proposes to cut SCHIP by 80% in 2013, of course the supporters of this bill do not really intend to cut SCHIP, which would force millions of kids off the program, so the overall cost of the bill is closer to $110 billion, which more than doubles the cost of the current program.

I also did a blog post yesterday on the “sin tax” that would be imposed on smokers in order to fund this vastly expanded version of SCHIP which is just totally unrealistic. 

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has indicated that cigarette taxes are one of the most regressive taxes, that is, a tax that falls more heavily on lower income individuals as a percentage of income. Furthermore, this proposal has a faulty premise and will cost taxpayers more. With a shrinking tobacco market, this tax uses declining revenues to pay for an expanding program. According to estimates, it would take 22 million new smokers in the United States in the next 5 years to pay for this program.

In addition and what is becoming true to form  for recent Democrat proposals , this bill makes it easier for illegal immigrants to get healthcare. It weakens requirements to prove citizenship  creating  an “expresslane” provision that allows a mere personal statement of citizenship in order to qualify to receive these benefits.

The Democrat leadership can delay the vote to override for the next two weeks, but as the facts become clearer to the American public, it should just solidify the resolve of those opposed to this terrible piece of legislation.

Recently, there has been much debate over the children’s healthcare proposal.  I personally did not support this legislation for a variety of reasons; however one reason that really caught my eye was the funding mechanism for this improperly named SCHIP bill. 

In order to fund this drastic and fiscally irresponsible expansion of SCHIP, it requires the inclusion of a “sin tax” on smoking.  Now, I personally don’t smoke and have never smoked, but we all have habits or hobbies that someone else might consider a “sin”.  What is happening here is an attempt by the majority of people who don’t smoke to tax those that do.

You will no doubt see many more attempts by Democrats to mandate “sin” taxes. But, even if you don’t smoke, keep in mind that we all have things we like to do, eat, or drink that are not good for us.

We should stand against these punitive taxes on the enjoyment of others.  Here is a list of the proposed taxes on tobacco in order to fund SCHIP:

• cigars from 20.719% to 53% with a $3 per cigar cap;
• cigarettes from 39 cents to $1;
• cigarette papers from 1.22 cents to 3.13 cents;
• cigarette tubes from 2.44 cents to 6.26 cents;
• snuff from 58.5 cents to $1.50;
• chewing tobacco from 19.5 cents to 50 cents;
• pipe tobacco from $1.0969 to $2.8126; and
• roll-your-own tobacco from $1.0969 to $8.8889