Important to note: “House Republicans opened the earmark door with a secret caucus vote three years ago. Now, it’s nearly a ‘free’ for all…”

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“The Squad” Earmarked $224 Million Since 2023 – Led By AOC, It’s Pork Barrel Spending By The Democratic Socialists

ZeroHedge, Mar 26, 2024 – Authored by Adam Andrzejewski via OpenTheBooks substack, Excerpts:

“The Squad’ is a group of ultra-left wing Congressional socialists which has been the toast of so-called “progressives” for the last several years.

Its members might promise a worker’s paradise, in which government “withers away,” in the words of Vladimir Lenin, but for now they are only too happy to direct government largesse to the folks back home.

In fact, The Squad members have earmarked $224 million and many absurd pet projects since 2023. 

Download the full database of The Squad’s 2023 and 2024 earmarks here.

Our figures include the earmarks in the most recent $1.2 trillion spending bill from last week.

It’s a stunning display of logrolling – deep inside the status quo – they say they hate as a tool of capitalist oppression.

The Squad maxed out their pork in 2023 and 2024. Their 215 earmarked projects cost the rest of us (overwhelmingly non-socialist) U.S. taxpayers $224.1 million. Every dime was borrowed against our national debt.

New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), AKA, “AOC,” who last week did not know that “RICO” names a crime, is The Squad’s most prominent voice. She is celebrated as a “socialist superstar” by the Democratic Socialists of America.

Representative Ocasio-Cortez earmarked $1.2 million for a new building for the International Muslim Women’s Empowerment Project. Its founder teaches a “hijab grab” self-defense move involving a “kick to the groin.”

And then there’s the $500,000 for the Billion Oyster project in her district. Rich people eat oysters. However, the law prohibits anyone from either fishing or eating oysters in the Hudson River. So, this is only an engineering project for eco-marginalized people in Queens.

Other Squad members are Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Cori Bush (D-MO), Greg Casar (D-TX), Summer Lee (D-PA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).

The Squad Practices Race-based Earmarking – Squad members shoveled some pretty stinky stuff into spending bills. It appears race-based legislating is OK if a progressive does it:

• $850,000 to create jobs for the Black community near George Floyd Square, whose death in 2020 “added to the stress faced by the community and increased the need for support and stability in housing and commerce.” Patron: Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
• $1.7 million to help the Environmental Leaders of Color build a “green tech park.” The group’s goal is to “assist marginalized communities in preparing for climate change’s adverse effects … so that they can thrive like healthy plants in their natural ecosystem.” Patron: Congressman Jamaal Bowman.
• $1 million for the Immigrant Opportunity Center expansion. It’s run by CAPI USA, a nonprofit that “guides refugees and immigrants in their journey toward self-determination and social equality.” Patron: Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
• $1.35 million to New Immigrant Community Empowerment, a nonprofit that advocates for citizenship for all illegal immigrants. Patron: Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez ($500,000). The group received another $850,000 this year from Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY).
• $1.5 million to build special grocery stores and education facilities for Black farmers in the community of St. Louis. Patron: Congresswoman Cori Bush.
• $1 million for the San Antonio College Empowerment Center, which runs an Undocumented Student Support Program to help immigrants enroll in the school. Patron: Congressman Greg Casar.

The Squad’s Green Earmarks

Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez introduced her Green New Deal, in 2019. It’s the focus of 21 earmarks to build green infrastructure, move away from fossil fuels, and involve minority communities in climate policy. She and her colleagues find ways to get us to pay for their policy preference, such as:

• $1 million to build “a network of intergenerational, trauma-informed waterfront green spaces.” The project already received $792,000 in 2022 earmark funding. Patron: Congresswoman Ayanna Presley
• $466,000 to improve the energy efficiency of a St. Louis homeless shelter. Patron: Congresswoman Cori Bush.
• $4 million to build an “industrial green beltway” in Dearborn, Michigan. Patron: Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.
• $500,000 from Ocasio-Cortez will build an oyster reef to “address longstanding environmental justice inequities facing underrepresented communities in Queens.” Oyster habitats in New York have been damaged by pollution and harvesting them for food is illegal.
• $850,000 to repair a bridge that “connects minority environmental justice communities” in Pennsylvania. Patron: Congresswoman Summer Lee.
• $2 million for Everett, Mass. to build a park for “low-income BIPOC residents” to “stay cool during increasingly hot summers.” (“BIPOC” is an acronym for “Black, indigenous and other people of color.”) Patron: Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley.

Stopping Insane Earmarks. Or Not.

In 2024, when it got too insane, Republican members of the House finally got serious and cut a few of the whacky earmarks.

For example, Rep. Pressley’s earmark to build affordable housing for LGBTQ seniors did not make it into the final House bill.

However, in the second minibus bill, Pressley was able to add back $850,000 for LGBTQ “The Pryde” senior housing by moving the earmark to the U.S. Senate. Pressley called Republicans homophobic for attempting toeliminate her LGBTQ earmarks.

Background

From time immemorial, politicians of every stripe have used their positions to benefit those who sent them to D.C., while sticking taxpayers with the tab.

Congresspeople all play together in the sandbox, promising not to rat each other out for some strikingly goofy – or downright weird – local spending. Things got so out of hand 15 years ago, that a bi-partisan coalition led by former U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and President Barack Obama actually banned earmarking for ten years.

It didn’t last.

Regardless of what you may have heard about GOP hate for former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), three years ago, the House Republican caucus, in a secret vote, joined Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats to reinstate earmarks.

That moment of fiscal fealty was replaced by the naked need for pork, and in the instance, a new alliance with the Speaker.

And so, we have more tabs to face than a diet soda aisle at a big Costco.

In 2024, the so-called “minibus measures” contained 8,051 earmarks totaling $15.7 BILLION TAXPAYER DOLLARS. In 2023, the year-end omnibus was stuffed with 7,510 earmarks worth just over $16 BILLION TAXPAYER DOLLARS.

Congress must disclose earmarks online. However, it posts them in hard-to-review PDF files. (Our team at OpenTheBooks.com converts those files into Excel spreadsheets to more effectively parse what they are hiding.)

When Congress knows what it is doing is wrong, it always makes it a bit harder to find.

In all too many ways, earmarks – from both Democrats and Republicans — are no exception.

Next week – “The Freedom Caucus Decides It Is Free to Earmark”

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It is critical now for America to get back on track.

Step 1: Eliminate Earmarks – eliminate budget blowouts from special interest politics.

Step 2: The Leviticus 25 Plan – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (12185 downloads )

Step 3: Less government, more freedom.

Washington Democrats love to grow government and broaden dependency on government programs. And run massive budget deficits, which will eventually sink the U.S. Dollar and bring on a forced transition into a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) system.

Washington Republicans, meanwhile, love to give lip service to controlling spending and getting the massive federal deficits back under control – but, shamefully, have no politically feasible, economically viable plan to present to the voting public.

Main Street America Republicans do have a plan…

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Biden’s Free Lunch for Rich Kids – WSJ

The USDA prepares to feed more schoolchildren year-round, even if their parents make six figures.

By Sam Adolphsen and Paige Terryberry | March 26, 2024 4:06 pm ETn

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, but the Biden administration insists otherwise. The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to provide free lunches to children—including many whose parents earn six-figure incomes—year-round. New research from our organization finds that up to 72% of America’s some 49 million public-school students could soon be on the taxpayer dole.

As usual, this story begins with a supposedly temporary program. As schools closed in 2020, Congress allowed states to send extra payments to families whose children qualified for free and reduced-price school lunches. The following year, it added summer payments to the package, depositing money directly onto families’ electronic benefit transfer, or EBT, cards, which are used for food stamps. Finally, in December 2022, Congress made this “Summer EBT” program permanent—beginning in mid-2024. The USDA would automatically enroll millions of families and create a separate, means-tested application process for others.

The White House is now exceeding what Congress intended. In September 2023, the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service finalized a rule that expands the number of students who qualify for reduced lunches during the school year. If a mere 25% of a public school’s students meet the requirements, 100% of its students will be eligible to receive the benefit. The rule imposes no income limits, meaning middle- and upper-class children will get subsidized meals.

The Biden administration also is preparing to add the summer months to the expansion. On Dec. 29, 2023, the Food and Nutrition Service quietly solicited feedback on the difficulty of administering Summer EBT applications—likely hinting that it intends to abandon the applications and return to the pandemic-era policy of depositing taxpayer funds into EBT accounts, regardless of need.

According to our research, as many as 50% more public-school students will be eligible for taxpayer help during the school year. If the administration abandons Summer EBT applications and income standards, these students will automatically receive summer payments, too. If their families have EBT cards, they’ll likely receive monthly direct deposits; if not, they’ll presumably receive a card in the mail.

The administration is selling the expansion as a way to fight child hunger, especially in low-income communities. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack declared in January that “no child in this country should go hungry” or “lose access to nutritious school meals during the summer months.” But the federal government already runs multiple programs for low-income students, including the Summer Food Service Program and Seamless Summer Option.

In classic Washington fashion, the more-tailored summer food programs will continue to exist. The feds, meanwhile, will throw more taxpayer money at the same population while sweeping a larger share of Americans onto the government dole. The exact cost of Summer EBT isn’t yet known but will almost certainly run into the billions. The cost of expanded school lunches for middle- and upper-class children will add billions more.

Short of a new administration, court intervention or act of Congress, there’s no way to roll back the school-year welfare expansion. But states can refuse to participate in Summer EBT, and so far 13 haven’t opted in for this summer. The Biden administration—backed by an army of activists and a gullible media—is trying to browbeat them into submission. Nebraska reversed course last month, joining the program after previously steering clear.

Republican leaders fear being tarred as heartless monsters who want poor children to starve, but this handout would flow to the well-off. The real stakes are stopping welfare that taxpayers can’t afford and families don’t need.

Mr. Adolphsen is policy director and Ms. Terryberry a senior research fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability.

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The Main Street America Republicans’ plan:

1. Lifts families up out of the mire of ‘government-dependency’ programs, eliminates debt, and restores financial security for millions of America’s hard-working, tax-paying U.S. citizens who wish to be free to manage their own lives;

2. Generates massive $112.6 billion federal budget surpluses each of the first five years of activation – and pays for itself entirely over the succeeding 10-15 year period – thereby protecting the integrity of the U.S. Dollar, slowing inflation to a trickle, and cancelling the forced transition into a CBDC system;

3. Re-ignites free market dynamics, economic liberty, and a powerful new long-term economic growth cycle.

The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens.  It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.

The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (12185 downloads )

Business as usual in Washington…

The good news: Republican are not going to be ‘tarred and feathered’ for shutting down the government as the campaign season heats up.

The bad news: 1) Deficit spending – unchecked; 2) Border security – weak; 3) Bewildering ‘pork’ funding measures – inserted, and worst of all; 4) Washington Republicans have no alternative master plan to re-instill spending discipline and reduce/eliminate federal budget deficits, restore financial security for millions of American families, and win over the hearts (and votes) of millions of hard-working, tax-paying U.S. citizens – to get America back on track.

See how your U.S. House Representative voted here.

Bewildering ‘Pork’ insertions:

– $850k for a gay senior home
– $15 million to pay for Egyptian’s college tuitions
– $400k for a gay activist group to teach elementary kids about being trans
– $500k for a DEI zoo
– $400k for a group to gives clothes to teens to help them hide their gender [that includes giving 13-year-old children chest binders, tuck equipment, and “counseling” without parental consent].

Additionally, it would fund facilities providing routine abortion services, including late-term abortions.

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House Passes Pork-Filled Bill To Fully Fund Government

ZeroHedge, Friday, Mar 22, 2024 – Excerpts:

Update (1150ET):  With just hours to go before a shutdown, the House has passed the $1.2 trillion minibus bill, which will now head to the Senate.

The vote was 286-134, with 112 Republicans and 22 Dems against.

All 100 Senators will need to agree to a vote to pass the bill before midnight. If this fails to happen, the government would be forced into a partial shutdown on Saturday morning.

President Biden has urged Congress to pass it quickly so he can sign…

The bill funds the departments of Homeland Security, State, Labor, Defense, Health and Human Services, among other things. Combined with the $459 billion bill passed earlier this month, the latest funding packages fully fund the federal government to the tune of $1.659 trillion through September, NBC reports.

House Freedom Caucus member Chip Roy (R-TX) railed against the fact that members only had around 24 hours to review the bill – and attacked his fellow Republicans for failing to secure immigration wins.

Rep. Chip Roy: “All you social conservative groups, where the hell are you? Crickets. Silence. Because you care about political power more than the very thing you say you’re for. You know who you are. Where are the social conservative groups? Cowering in the corner.”…

In short, Democrats bailed out Johnson once again – the same move which resulted in the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

There are numerous House Republicans concerned with the package’s lack of strict border security provisions, the huge price tag, the secretive negotiating process and even the lack of a pay hike for members of Congress. The unrest is especially acute among conservatives…

The package accounts for approximately 70% of discretionary government spending – and consists of six out of twelve total bills that Congress must pass each fiscal year to fund the government. The six others, around $460 billion in spending, were passed earlier this month…

“This is not the bill that my subcommittee produced and supported. The Senate has taken liberties with their Congressionally Directed Spending requests that would never stand in the House,” said Rep. Robert Aderholt, (R-AL), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Labor and Health & Human Services (HHS).

“The House did not include these partisan funding projects in its Labor-HHS legislation. Based on these principles, the Senate shouldn’t either,” Aderholt continued. “I have multiple concerns, among them are the many new social services that this bill would create for the millions of illegal immigrants streaming across our border. Additionally, it would fund facilities providing routine abortion services, including late-term abortions. The Senate must respect the work of the House. In good conscience, I cannot and will not vote for these projects or this bill.”

Pork City – As usual, Democrats slipped in as much pork as possible, including:

– $850k for a gay senior home
– $15 million to pay for Egyptian’s college tuitions
– $400k for a gay activist group to teach elementary kids about being trans
– $500k for a DEI zoo
– $400k for a group [Briarpatch YS] to gives clothes to teens to help them hide their gender

… About that $400k for clothes – that includes giving 13-year-old children chest binders, tuck equipment, and “counseling” without parental consent.

Briarpatch YS gives 13-year-old kids chest binders, tuck equipment, “counseling” all… pic.twitter.com/CmMxmFivPU — End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 21, 2024

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Main Street America Republicans have a master plan – to win elections and clean this mess up…

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (12119 downloads )

“However human, envy is certainly not one of the sources of discontent that a free society can eliminate. It is probably one of the essential conditions for the preservation of such a society that we do not countenance envy, not sanction its demands by camouflaging it as social justice, but treat it, in the words of John Stuart Mill, as ‘the most anti-social and evil of all passions.’”  –  Friedrich von Hayek, 1974 Nobel Prize, Economic Sciences ___________________________________

America’s dynamic new plan to dispense with envy………

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America 2024

Washington Democrats and Republicans are driving America headlong into a full-blown debasement of the U.S. Dollar – and an inevitable conversion to a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) system.

Congress added $7.5 trillion to the debt over the last 2 years, according to The Heritage Foundation report. This comprehensive report exposes the historic spending spree from both parties in Congress, March 2020 – December 2022, has added a massive $7.464 trillion to the national debt (not counting accrued interest costs). Source: Fox News, Sep 21, 2023.

Congress’ latest spending package, approved by the GOP-led House of Representatives, covers six appropriation bills totaling $460 billion.

It also includes over 6,600 earmarks at a cost of $12.7 billion dollars.

See how your state’s Congressman voted here.

The U.S. Congress has no appetite whatsoever to change its’ free-wheeling ways.

Main Street America Republicans, however, do have a plan to put this chaotic mess back in order….

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GOP-led House passes spending package to keep government open, includes $13 billion in earmarks

The spending bill passed 339-85 with more Democrats voting in favor of it than Republicans

By Nicholas Ballasy, Updated: March 6, 2024 10:35pm / Dig Deeper – Excerpts:

The GOP-led House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a 1,050-page spending package that includes nearly $13 billion of earmarks, commonly referred to as “pork barrel” spending.

The bill passed 339-85 with more Democrats voting in favor of it than Republicans. In total, 207 Democrats and 132 Republicans voted yes. 

There are earmarks in the legislation sponsored by members of the Democrat and Republican parties. The spending package contains six appropriations bills totaling about $460 billion.

The first spending deadline in the temporary spending bill Congress passed last week is Friday, March 8. The appropriations bills in the new spending package would last for the rest of fiscal year 2024.

“One Republican Senator gets 8 earmarks in the omnibus today. No one voted to add these and no one gets to vote to take these out. We have gone backwards 14 years, to before the 2010 Tea Party wave,” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-K.Y., said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, referring to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. “The swamp is back to buying Republican votes for the omnibus with earmarks.”

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., wrote on his X account that the spending package is “packed with 6,600+ earmarks totaling $12.7 BILLION DOLLARS.”

“Skyrocketing inflation. Massive debt. But Washington keeps spending your money on stupid pet projects. NO MORE EARMARKS,” he wrote.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-K.Y., said it’s “disappointing that Republicans are going along with Democrats” in moving forward with the spending bill that has hundreds of earmarks.

“This is a real step backwards, and I will oppose it with every fiber of my being,”  Paul said.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said there was “no way any mortal could actually vet all of the earmarks in the 48-hour time period they’ve given us so far.” 

“Earmarks are the corrupt currency of Congress. No self-respecting Republican should touch them,” he wrote.

Lee said Senate lawmakers can still request that their earmarks be stripped from the bill…

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., has reportedly sponsored many earmarks in the spending package. Thune is running to replace Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, R-K.Y., who is stepping down from his leadership role in November.

Lee called on Thune to request removal of the earmarks from the spending package. Thune’s office was not available for comment before press time.

Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, argued that Congress “should not be giving $12.7 billion to Congressional pork projects when we are $34 trillion in debt.”…

____________________________________

The Main Street America Republican plan to save America:

The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens.  It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.

The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (11967 downloads )

Congress is once again spinning its budget wheels, America is sinking ever deeper into its self-made cavernous debt hole, and the economy continues on in a sour skid.

It is time to think outside-the-box. It is time for a comprehensive new strategy….

……………………………….

Congressional Leaders Announce Deal To Avert Shutdown

ZeroHedge, Feb 29, 2024 – Update (1748ET): Congressional leaders have reached an agreement to avert a government shutdown this week. Under the deal, six full bills will be extended which will cover the departments of Agriculture, Justice, Commerce, Energy, Interior, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development through March 8, while the remaining six annual funding bills covering the departments of Labor and Health and Human Services, the Pentagon and other offices will be covered through March 22.

So, more can-kicking.

……………………………………

SuperCore Inflation Soars In January, Services Costs Re-Accelerate As Govt Handouts Spike

ZeroHedge, Feb 29, 2024 – …biggest MoM rise in Services inflation ex-shelter since Dec 2021

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Pending Home Sales Puked In January, Back Near Record Lows

ZeroHedge, Feb 29, 2024 – ...and December’s ‘surprise’ surge was revised down large. 

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Survey-Based Sentiment Slump Continues As Prices Paid Accelerates in Plunging Chicago PMI

ZeroHedge, Feb 29, 2024 – …not exactly election-winning headlines.

____________________________

Imagine a dynamic economic plan that grants U.S. citizens the same direct credit extensions that the Fed provided the Wall Street financial markets during the credit crisis of 2008-2010 and again in COVID downturn of 2021-2022.

Imagine millions of American families paying off trillions of dollars in mortgage debt, consumer debt, auto loans, student loan debt – and banks being suddenly ‘reliquified.’

And then imagine the U.S. banking sector looking for a place to earn a return as they wait patiently for loan demand (from now credit-worthy borrowers) to rebuild… over time.

Finally, imagine banks bidding on the highest form of AAA rated paper in the credit markets, U.S. Treasury bills and bonds and high-grade paper in the corporate bond market…

And then watch interest rates come back down. Watch the economy shift back into a long-term growth cycle, American families regain financial security, strength under-girds the U.S. Dollar.

Imagine an economic plan that generates $112.6 billion budget surpluses 2025-2029, and pays for itself entirely over a 10-15 year period.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (11788 downloads )