Quote :

"Price rerouted disaster funds Congressman oversaw earmarks Price said some FEMA money wasn't used effectively. Barbara Barrett, Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON - In his first year as chairman of a key congressional spending panel, Triangle congressman David Price helped steer more than $50 million away from a national competition to help communities stem the pain of natural disasters. Instead, the money was directed to 96 projects in the districts of some of Congress' most powerful or most vulnerable members, according to a study of earmarks conducted by a fiscal watchdog group in Washington. There, money was set aside for school systems, cities and states across the country to build tornado sirens, retrofit shelters and protect neighborhoods against flooding. "They were putting their own communities' needs ahead of more-vulnerable communities or communities that have done more to mitigate their risk," said Steve Ellis, vice president of the government watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. The group is releasing a database today that aims to detail every earmark in the massive omnibus spending bill passed by Congress last fall. The projects, which direct funding to specific congressional districts, are known as earmarks and have come under increasing scrutiny by Democratic leaders as well as President Bush. Taxpayers for Common Sense said it found $18 billion in total congressional earmarks in its database research, including more than $600 million in congressional and presidential earmarks in the Homeland Security spending bill controlled by Price. Price disputes that assertion, saying the bill has just $424 million in earmarks, and that the bill contains 40 percent less than the Republican-controlled bill in 2006. Still, every one of the earmarks had to go through Price. And to get a better understanding of how Congress works, it helps to take a close look at how a single program can be altered by the earmarking process. This year, $51 million has been directed to specific projects to be managed by the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program within the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. The disaster mitigation program is usually competitive, and last year FEMA received requests worth $292 million. "Every year, there have been more qualified projects than funds available, and this year will be no different," said David I. Maurstad, assistant administrator for mitigation at FEMA. But Price defended the earmarked projects, saying FEMA has not done enough on its own to spread money to needy communities across the country. "This was money not being effectively utilized," Price said in an interview Wednesday. "This is an area of great need." Last year, Price said, Congress gave the agency $134 million for its Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program. It had spent just $71 million by the end of the year. FEMA spokesman Butch Kinerney said the money has been assigned to projects and will be spent as soon as local recipients go through all the bureaucratic hoops to get their checks. In North Carolina, $6.4 million went to projects across the state. Among them: retrofitting an agriculture building to use as a storm shelter in the mountains, mapping flood plains along the coast and studying culverts near a low-lying school in the Piedmont. Two projects, worth a total $5 million, were sponsored by Price. The others went to Reps. Heath Shuler, a freshman Democrat from Waynesville, and Robin Hayes, a Republican from Concord. Both are considered vulnerable next election. "

..Same as the old boss.
I wonder if there are any of Price's "needy communities" which does not have a vulnerable incumbent?

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/943798.html

2/14/2008 10:08:27 PM

ZOMG politicians waste our money on useless shit for their own interests????????????????????????????

please tell it is not so

2/14/2008 10:30:07 PM

That's the spirit. Most politicians are self-serving tax n spenders...so let's make sure our guy is one too.

2/15/2008 12:51:28 AM

i fucking hate politicians

2/15/2008 12:54:52 AM

Can I get sides of tater salad and beans with that pork?

2/15/2008 1:17:27 AM

When my boyfriend had a scholarship thing to go to Rome for the summer, and had applied for his passport like 9 months in advance and still they hadn't processed it in time with just a week or so left before time to leave he contacted all his representatives (including Dole) most of which either didn't respond altogether or said sorry there is nothing we can do. If his passport didn't process in time that would mean he would have to pay back all that money that he got to go, alot of which he had already spent on items he would need there, on plane tickets, on booking reservations for certain events. David Price said he would try to fix the situation, and if he couldn't he would grant access to the special senator passport processing center in Washington. He really got us out of a bind, so while I vouch for everything he has done if office (although I did like that he was a cosponsor of ENDA), he was the only representative to go out of his way to help a constituent.

2/15/2008 6:50:44 AM

Elizabeth Dole is a cunt fucking daughter of the devil. A hillary of the republicans. Of all organizations she is buddy buddy with the psycho crazy women of MADD. I hope north Carolinians do the right thing and make sure that bitch does not get re-elected.

2/15/2008 8:40:04 AM

^^
While I'm glad your boyfriend got to go to Italy.. It gives me little relief that the gov't screws up the passport system, and then requires intervention from your congressman just to travel abroad.

Smoothing you through the beuracracy is not a good enough reason to keep returning these spineless, power-grubbing, tax-wasting politicians to office.

[Edited on February 15, 2008 at 10:37 AM. Reason : .]

2/15/2008 10:37:12 AM

DAT 190% PORK

2/15/2008 10:39:26 AM

Quote :

"then requires intervention from your congressman "

that kind of shit is what your congressman is supposed to help with. Contrary to popular believe your congressmen should be representing as well as helping his constituents with gov't bureaucracy. Not playing partisan hack politics, acting like they are in high school student government, spending all day talking to lobbyists, and playing golf.

2/15/2008 10:39:36 AM

^
Yea but lawmakers put up all these red-tape roadblocks to just living, They make it so complicated that it now requires one of them to help pull you through it....and then we're supposed to feel grateful?

2/15/2008 10:53:20 AM

Quote :

"In North Carolina, $6.4 million went to projects across the state. Among them: retrofitting an agriculture building to use as a storm shelter in the mountains, mapping flood plains along the coast and studying culverts near a low-lying school in the Piedmont."

And how is this bad?

2/15/2008 11:03:13 AM

^^ i agree this needs to be dealt with.

but at least our current congressman has shown he's willing to help

2/15/2008 11:13:54 AM

^^
Granted, it's hard for some to get upset about the pork that heads their way.

The problem with federal pork is that it doesn't have any authorization under the Constitution. The General Welfare clause means that the gov't should do things that helps everyone.

A storm shelter in the mountains (assuming it's not just for use by gov't officials), doesn't help me much here in Raleigh...let alone someone in Utah. Let the state or local gov't pay for that.

Mapping coastal flood plains in North Carolina might help us...but someone in Montana could care less. Let N. Carolina foot that bill.

And studying a culvert in North Carolina doesn't help anyone in Texas..so why should they help foot the bill?

Federal pork projects take everyone's money and spends it on things that help get specific politicians re-elected. That's not right.

[Edited on February 15, 2008 at 11:21 AM. Reason : .]

2/15/2008 11:21:17 AM

Now we see what your complaint is. It isn't about Pork, but it is about the government spending money to help the citizenry.

And this isn't pork. Before you get too cavalier about using the term, I suggest you actually know what it is.

[Edited on February 15, 2008 at 11:47 AM. Reason : .]

2/15/2008 11:45:29 AM

imo, the problem with things like this is the added cost to funnel the money into the federal government, just so it can be funneled right back into these specific state projects....they have to be losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in admin costs alone.

why not lower the federal taxes so the money can just stay in the respective states in the first place...then just eliminate the earmarks all together and let the states deal with these types of problems as they see fit?

2/15/2008 11:54:38 AM

imho i like having an aggressive congressman who will make sure the pork is heading this way instead of the funds going to build random bridges in alaska or museums dedicated to womp rats in Utah. That is if the best case scenario is not possible of just eliminating this thriftless spending.

2/15/2008 12:25:18 PM

Quote :

"Elizabeth Dole is a cunt fucking daughter of the devil. A hillary of the republicans. Of all organizations she is buddy buddy with the psycho crazy women of MADD. I hope north Carolinians do the right thing and make sure that bitch does not get re-elected."

Well I'm doing my part... I'm volunteering for/donating to the guy running against her.

That's why my status is:
http://jimnealforsenate.com/

There is also:
http://ncst.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7874965265

In addition to his other qualifications he's an investment banker rather than a career politician which might give him more of a financial insight and less ties to special interests.

Quote :

"imho i like having an aggressive congressman who will make sure the pork is heading this way instead of the funds going to build random bridges in alaska or museums dedicated to womp rats in Utah. That is if the best case scenario is not possible of just eliminating this thriftless spending."

What would it take to fully end such spending? Legislation? An executive decree/order? A change in attitude among Americans & Congress, or something else entirely, or all of the above?

2/15/2008 2:50:26 PM

I hate this shit as much as the next person, but some perspective might be in order.

18 billion / 3 Trillion = less than 1% of the budget. There are bigger fish to fry than this piddly shit that politicians want everyone up in arms about.

And yes, E. Dole has been as useful as teats on a boar for NC. The Hillary of the GOP is correct. That carpetbagger needs to either gracefully decline to run, or get her ass handed to her in the election.

2/15/2008 3:03:36 PM

^^Will you shut up about Jim Neal? He has as much of a chance to get elected to Senate as howard Staley. He needs a platform other than DNC talking points and his "I'm gay" agenda. Jesus Christ, he referred to straight people as breeders.

2/15/2008 3:21:25 PM

Someone talked about North Carolinians needing to vote for someone other than Dole. So a portion of my post was in regards to the first announced candidate to run against her. And his biggest "anti-dole" comments haven't been pro-DNC talking points, they instead are that he is committed to traveling all over NC to hear out people, to spend a lot of time in NC even once in office, and that he's not a career politician with the special interest baggage that can often entail.

I hate do to do a big post unrelated to the main topic (although there is a loose collection between how leadership spends money, even if it isn't specifically david price), but I feel more motivated after being told to shut up & I think the claim that he only is running on DNC talking point deserves response to show the campaign has specific policy ideas that are well thought out and that aren't just DNC talking points.

Quote :

"Raising the Education Bar We can’t begin any dialogue about building smart businesses without acknowledging the necessity of a workforce trained for the white collar economy of the 21st century. Entrepreneurial opportunities in North Carolina are suffering at a time when less than 1/3rd of the four-year universities in the UNC General System have five-year graduation rates above 50% and our state’s high schools have the 6th worst dropout rate in the nation. Clearly, strengthening our public universities through expansion of such programs as Pell grants and targeted federal research grants will be key agenda items. Likewise, our public high schools are being undercut by federal mandates such as No Child Left Behind-a failed initiative which I would work to scrap and replace with a mandate to foster old-fashioned American innovation, creative thinking, and improved outcomes instead of test-taking skills. It has been said that the backbone of the military is the non-commissioned officer corps. I say that the backbone for business incubation and skilled labor development is the community college system. North Carolina’s community colleges can compete with community colleges anywhere in the nation. So identifying or creating opportunities to build on this strength of our state through funding or legislation will make our government a partner in success. Building Infrastructure to Raise Competitiveness Let’s take those well-trained kids turned away by our education system and provide them with real opportunities in North Carolina’s home-grown economy. If we can provide the human capital -through university and community college-driven investment - infrastructure and financial capital, our entrepreneurial community can build homegrown economic engines for the 21st century. The Appalachian Regional Commission has played a pivotal role in the development of the basic infrastructure in western North Carolina- I’ll support legislation providing the same for the eastern part of our state through the creation of the Southeast Crescent Authority as currently before the Congress. We have made persistent and determined improvements in our information infrastructure across North Carolina. Global competitiveness begins with world-class telecommunication access. I will propose legislation further strengthening the digital backbone available to North Carolina and then providing competitive grants to build out the “middle mile” and “last mile” of connectivity. Again, this is the sort of legislation which can draw support across the ideological spectrum because the model can work for all states. Provide Seed Capital Based on personal experience, I can tell you that venture and private equity capital investors are increasingly raising the ante for funding new business creation, effectively making their investment mechanisms unavailable for most entrepreneurs. For most fledgling entrepreneurs the only option for funding new businesses is through the inefficient, painstakingly slow process of finding and persuading angel investors. This is a challenge in which North Carolina is not unlike other states: a need to provide entrepreneurs with ready access to seed capital. I’ve worked extensively with the Small Business Administration in Washington, and have come to admire its Micro-Loan program. It’s a fairly new initiative which has been quite successful-more so than other SBA lending and finance programs. The SBA Micro-Loan program’s budget and loan caps must be expanded and its regional targets should be directed by public/private economic development authorities at the local level. If an expanded Micro-Loan program proves to be a success, it would serve as a model for a host of federal agencies to manage the myriad of development programs. Entrepreneurial Spirit in Washington Successful entrepreneurs don’t take wild risks; we take very calculated risks, learn fast and move forward. As your next US Senator, I will embrace the development of innovative ideas, track performance honestly and transparently-without pride or prejudice- in order to learn from real experience and then either scale up investment or accept loss and throw it out."

^All that said, I was done talking about Dole's opponent after responding to the Dole comment, and I will again be done after responding to this comment unless you'd like to carry on the same discussion more.

2/15/2008 4:45:02 PM

Quote :

"It isn't about Pork, but it is about the government spending money to help the citizenry."

You mean to say it's about the FEDERAL gov't spending the tax money collected from citizens in one state to pay for some pet project in another state.

This is not one of the duties of congress as specified in section 8 of the Constituion. Congress may spend money on the general welfare of the whole country (e.g. nat'l defense) but should not spend money on specific welfare (a study on a culvert in NC)

The states and local counties and cities should be the ones collecting taxes for specific projects in their areas. Voters will have more control on this type of spending.

2/15/2008 10:50:44 PM

Quote :

"And how is this bad? "

it's neither the business nor the right of the federal government to do it.

2/16/2008 12:55:53 AM

^^you need to understand what a pet project is. There are all programs that FEMA would have funded had FEMA not been run by complete idiots.

this is the problem with Republican administrations. They put people who are ideologically opposed to government programs as there head with the direct purpose of running the program into the ground, that way they can claim government is inefficient.

2/16/2008 12:57:28 PM

I understand some of you have this idea that this is pork because the feds have no business spending moeny on state issues, but what do you think happens with the Department of Education? Are the paying for those national schools? Is Housing and Urban Development building and funding housing facilities for you in Raleigh when they do work in New Orleans or Wichita?

Some of you are a little misguided.

Earmarks are not on their own bad ideas. It's not very different from having a competitive process through FEMA or another agency, except that instead of a bureaucrat making the decision, it's made by a politician. You could make arguments either way based on your stance, but only one of those is actually accountable to the people.

2/16/2008 2:11:33 PM

Quote :

""I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on the objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." "

-- President James Madison, 1792...disapproval of Congress appropriating $15,000 to assist some French refugees.

Quote :

""Having considered the bill...I am constrained by the insuperable difficulty I feel in reconciling this bill with the Constitution of the United States...The legislative powers vested in Congress are specified...in the...Constitution, and it does not appear that the power proposed to be exercised by the bill is among the enumerated powers..." "

-- -- President James Madison, in his veto of a bill for "internal improvements," including roads, bridges, and canals.

2/16/2008 10:39:37 PM

And yet, amazingly, the Works Progress Administration and Tennessee Valley Authority happened a hundred and some odd years later. Things change. This is not the government of our ancestors.

Say what you want, but that's the truth. And no amount of "let's see the world through our forefathers eyes" will change that. Remember, our forefathers had plenty of perspectives that don't match with our understanding of ethical, moral, or appropriate behavior today.

2/17/2008 11:37:52 AM

Quote :

"what do you think happens with the Department of Education"

fuck the DoE. The issue of education should be left to the states. NCLB is the biggest bunch of bullshit ever teacher and education professionals hate it; politicians love it b.c it gives them nice numbers to campaign with and makes it seem like they are helping the "underprivileged" children.

Eitherway you may have some backwater places like Mississippi who's state controlled education bans teaching of evolution, however, its their own fault for not properly educating their people to compete with their contemporaries.

2/17/2008 1:40:42 PM

Quote :

"I understand some of you have this idea that this is pork because the feds have no business spending moeny on state issues, but what do you think happens with the Department of Education? Are the paying for those national schools? Is Housing and Urban Development building and funding housing facilities for you in Raleigh when they do work in New Orleans or Wichita? "

i have a problem with all of that stuff. whether or not you want to call it pork is a different issue, but all of those things are pretty clearly unconstitutional and would be better left to states.

2/17/2008 2:47:35 PM

Quote :

"Remember, our forefathers had plenty of perspectives that don't match with our understanding of ethical, moral, or appropriate behavior today."

I kinda see it as the ethics, morals and behaviors of today sadly no longer match those of the founders.

I understand that in your understanding, the Constitution is one of those "living, breathing" documents..open to whimisical interpretation.

I see the Constituion as a foundation document, that cannot be ignored or changed through creative interpretation. The Founders made it difficult to change on purpose..through amendments.

2/17/2008 9:47:42 PM

seriously...the Constitution has provisions for being updated to future needs. The argument that the founders didn't foresee our needs of today holds no water--of course they didn't. That's why they designed the Constitution to be able to adapt to the times.

The answer, however, isn't to flat out disregard it whenever we find it convenient to do so. If we decide that we need to do something contrary to what the Constitution allows, the answer is to change the Constitution--not ignore the rules and do it anyway. Sure, it's a little more difficult, but that's good--that way we have to take pause and decide that something really is a good idea before we do it.

What's the point of even having the Constitution if we're just going to constantly trample it? The way things are now, the document is totally neutered. When people (often rightfully) invoke the Constitution to protect against some government transgression, it gets ignored a la The Boy Who Cried Wolf, because we so constantly and blatantly defecate all over the lawful and proper constraints that are supposedly in place.

2/17/2008 11:40:27 PM

^ agreed politicians espicially our current president enjoys the constitution a la carte, picking and choosing certain parts and ignoring others when convenient.

I enjoy EarthDogg basic premises however I agree somewhat with FuhCtious that some adaptions to the role of government were needed in the best interests of our society. Yet often the changes that adapted are created to protect the elite and maintain the power of those currently in office.

2/18/2008 12:19:57 AM

I don't think the current administration is really any more guilty than plenty of other offenders (which certainly doesn't excuse them--they've taken a pretty huge shit on the Constitution)

LBJ and FDR were the worst, in my mind.

Quote :

"I agree somewhat with FuhCtious that some adaptions to the role of government were needed in the best interests of our society. "

I concur. Do it through the proper channels, though, yielding to the consent of the people and the states as is legally required.

2/18/2008 12:33:11 AM

Too bad for you the chances of Price not getting re-elected are about the same as Vernon Robinson being made head of the NAACP

2/18/2008 12:55:43 AM

i'll take anyone as long as we can get that cunt Elizabeth Dole out of office; and fuck sue myrick also

2/18/2008 8:52:17 AM