2019 “Pig Book” Exposes $15.3 Billion in Pork
“The little pink book Washington doesn’t want you to read†is back! Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) released the 2019 Congressional Pig Book at a recent news conference on Capitol Hill alongside Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Reps. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), and Tom McClintock (R-Calif.). Also in attendance were CAGW’s mascots, “PigFoot†and “Pig Spender,†and a live pot-bellied pig named Faye.
CAGW unearthed 282 earmarks costing taxpayers $15.3 billion in the appropriations bills funding the federal government in fiscal year (FY) 2019. The cost is more than half of the record of $29 billion in earmarks set 13 years ago – an ominous uptick in congressionally-directed, special interest spending. This also marks the seventh time that members of Congress violated the earmark moratorium adopted in FY 2011 in order to waste vital taxpayer dollars on parochial and non-essential pet projects.
Among the egregious examples of pork-barrel waste highlighted in the 2019 Pig Book are $13.8 million to manage wild horses and burros, $9 million to quarantine fruit flies, and $863,000 to eradicate brown tree snakes in Guam.
Television news coverage of the 2019 Pig Book has included interviews on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal,†FOX Business Network’s “After the Bell,†and FOX News Channel’s “Outnumbered Overtime with Harris Faulkner,†as well as local network news coverage in 35 states.
The 2019 Pig Book has also resulted in numerous articles in print and online, including June 12’s top story on FOXNews.com and articles in The Daily Caller, Las Vegas Review-Journal, and Washington Examiner. In addition, CAGW President Tom Schatz authored an opinion piece on the Pig Book that appeared on FOXBusiness.com, and Cal Thomas highlighted the Pig Book in his nationally syndicated column, which appears in more than 500 newspapers across the country.
Read the 2019 Congressional Pig Book Summary and get your own copy.
CAGW has named New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) Porker of the Month for enacting a “Mini-Green New Deal†in her state. In March, Gov. Lujan Grisham signed the Energy Transition Act into law, which mandates that New Mexico’s electricity grid be completely carbon-free by 2045. The law will likely cost New Mexico citizens billions. According to a University of Chicago study, mandating “a certain percentage of the state’s electricity come from renewable sources†increases electricity prices by 17 percent, and “consumers in the 29 states studied had paid $125.2 billion more for electricity.†Worse yet, these policies “are inefficient in reducing carbon emissions.†Responding to the bill’s passage, CAGW President Tom Schatz said, “The radical Green New Deal would bankrupt the country if it were adopted nationally, and this pint-sized version in New Mexico threatens that state with the very same fiscal calamity.†For trying to impose a problematic “Mini-Green New Deal,†Gov. Lujan Grisham is the June Porker of the Month. Read more about the Porker of the Month.
