Taxpayers for Common Sense has been hard at work sifting through the costly pet projects stuffed into the 2010 Defense appropriations bill, a notorious earmark magnet, and their research does not disappoint.
They found that 4 percent of House members got close to a third of the $2.75 billion earmarks in the bill.
That 4 percent, TCS’s Steve Ellis said, “just happen to be the 18 members of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.”
Ellis adds that since 2007, those same 18 members have taken in more than $800,000 in campaign contributions from people who benefitted from the earmarks.
Of the 18 lawmakers who brought home the most bacon, 11 are Democrats and 7 are Republicans, according to an examination of the database provided by TCS.
Those members include Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., who won 45 earmarks totaling $133,566,000. Moran received the biggest return on his efforts, with $201,100 in contributions from earmark beneficiaries.
Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., another top earmarker, brought home $281,955,000 for pet projects and received from those beneficiaries $67,600 in campaign contributions.
Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., the subcommittee chair, inserted 20 earmarks totaling $77,500,000 and he received $199,050 in campaign contributions. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., the former Appropriations Committee chair, got 35 earmarks worth $115,700,000. Campaign contributions from those earmark beneficiaries totaled $123,800.
“In the earmark spending game, it’s all about who you know and whether you pony up campaign cash,” Ellis said. “The members of the defense spending panel are the ones writing the checks and they shower most of that cash on their district and campaign contributors.”
