700 Pages Of Pork

The Examiner notes the ginormous festival of pork that has made its way into the omnibus spending bill just passed by the House. The list runs to nearly 700 pages - each page crammed with money taken from taxpayers and glad-handed away by Congress. They look at just one earmark and ask why.

Within hours of the bill’s posting, eagle-eyed readers were uncovering gems like the $2.6 million noncompetitive award for unstated purposes to the National Center on Education and the Economy, with the money required to be delivered within 30 days. A couple of quick Internet searches revealed that NCEE is a 501 C(3) tax-exempt educational foundation devoted to providing “strategic assistance” to local, state and federal policy-makers on work force development programs in education.

Marc Tucker is NCEE’s most highly compensated officer, receiving more than $800,000 in salary and benefits, according to the organization’s most recent 990 tax return. Tucker is a long-time donor to Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., including giving the maximum individual contribution of $4,600 to her presidential campaign, according to OpenSecrets.org. Over the years, he has contributed to other major Democratic leaders like 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. Tucker is free to support the candidates of his choice, of course. But NCEE’s tax return showed more than $30 million on hand at the end of the 2006 tax period and the group claims to receive support from many of the nation’s richest private foundations, so why does Tucker’s group need a sweetheart deal paid by the taxpayers for $2.6 million and why the rush? Since the NCEE award is just one paragraph taken from nearly 700 pages of pork barrel in the omnibus spending measure, President Bush should get that veto pen ready.

The sheer number of pork items is staggering. This is only one of them. Betsy Newmark has a link to the Heritage Foundation's Omnibusting website, which has ferreted out more than 11,000 separate pork expenditures - so far. That's our money they are shoveling out , at least in part to keep their campaign funds flowing in. That has got to stop, folks. Regardless of what party you belong to, you should be vehemently opposed to this practice.