Porker of the Year, 2008
Monday, March 30, 2009
By: Leslie K. Paige

Wastewatcher, March 2009

After a flurry of voting, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) can finally unveil the long-awaited results of its 2008 Porker of the Year campaign.  Drum-roll, please. 

With 4,312 votes, 76 percent of the votes cast on CAGW’s website, the overwhelming favorites for this dubious achievement award were that dynamic duo of dumb fiscal deeds, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).  Coming in second was the very deserving Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), followed by one of Congress’ most ardent earmark fanatics, the always irrepressible, acutely irresponsible Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.).

Unlike years past, when voting has been nip and tuck right up to the final buzzer, the final winners threw up such impressive waste numbers during the campaign that they were ahead on the leader board for the entire five weeks of the contest, galvanizing public opinion and solidifying their primacy with a steady stream of extravagant fiscal exploits and unwelcome public pronouncements. 

The two were honored in tandem, which is where they tend to be, as Porkers of the Month in August 2008.  At the time, their claim to fame was that they had failed to pass any of the fiscal year 2009 appropriations bills, wasting most of their time in session naming government buildings or lands, or making technical corrections to existing laws.  Their accomplishments to that point consisted of voting to establish “Frank Sinatra Day,” National Plumbing Industry Week,” and “National Day of the Cowboy.”  They got much busier in January of 2009.

Although both leaders have garnered rotten reviews from CAGW as well as other taxpayer watchdogs for years, like all the truly committed abusers of tax dollars, they refused to rest on their proverbial laurels.  After their slacker period, and throughout early 2009, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid came roaring back when they were front and center in the legislative battle over President Obama’s so-called “stimulus” bill, ginning up anxiety and fomenting panic among taxpayers at every opportunity in order to finally muster support for passage of the outrageous $787 billion plan.

The two runners-up merit special mention.  Sen. Dodd earned attention “countrywide,” so to speak, when he accepted two sweetheart mortgage deals from Countrywide Finance in 2003, while he was in charge of the Senate Banking Committee.  CAGW named him Porker of the Month in June 2008.  And his is a gift that just keeps on giving (or taking, depending upon your perspective).  With the March 19, 2009 release of a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform report on Countrywide’s influence over lawmakers, Sen. Dodd continues to reap a whirlwind of bad publicity over new revelations about how Countrywide favored certain members of Congress by ushering them into a very special VIP club whose members received unusually favorable deals on their home mortgages from Angelo Mozilo, then CEO of the now defunct Countrywide.

Rep. Moran snagged the Porker of the Month in November, 2008 for his enthusiastic support for wealth redistribution and his disdain for the idea that people who create wealth should be entitled to keep it.  These days, with the passage of the $787 billion “stimulus” package, $700 billion in bank bailouts, the $410 billion omnibus bill crammed with thousands of earmarks and the deficit hovering somewhere between $1.7 and $1.8 trillion, Rep. Moran must be as happy as a pig in…well, you know what we mean. 

The taxpayers have spoken; may the porkers heed their votes and improve their handling of everyone’s hard-earned money.