WASHINGTON, Oct. 12, 2007
The Senate's King Of Pork - And Fish
Sen. Ted Stevens Is Spending Millions Of Your Tax Dollars On Alaska, Including Its Salmon
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Play CBS Video Video Alaska Senator's Earmarks Eyed Sen. Ted Stevens may be under federal investigation in his home state of Alaska but that hasn't interfered with his approving grants on costly projects for his home state. Sharyl Attkisson reports.
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Video Alaska Senator On Hot Seat Sharyl Attkisson talks with Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense about the controversial spending of Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. Ellis argues Stevens has wrongly granted tax dollars to Alaska.
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Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, walks to the Republican Party luncheon in the U.S. Capitol this past summer. Stevens' staying power in Congress has led to strength in amassing earmarks for local projects, using your tax dollars. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
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Interactive 110th Congress The balance of power shifts and new leadership takes control as the latest session convenes.
Investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson keeps watch on how the government is spending your tax dollars
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• Millions In Pills, Flushed
• Murtha's Defense Earmarks Questioned
• Bailout Banks Hike Up Charges
• Student Loan Charity Under Fire
• Bailout Money To Tax Havens
• Big Bank's Bailout Spending Spree
• The Impossible-To-Track Bailout
• Where Did The Bailout Billions Really Go?
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• Parking Garage To Nowhere
• Did D.C. Bribery Cost Troop Lives?
• Teach For America Gets Schooled
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• From Lawmaker To Lobbyist
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• Millions In Pills, Flushed
How would Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense rank Stevens in terms of what kind of an earmarker he is?
“He’s at the head of the pack,” Ellis said. “His ability to bring home the bacon to Alaska is legendary and he doesn’t make any bones about doing that.”
Stevens gets his buying power from his staying power. With nearly four decades in the Senate, now at age 83, he's the longest-serving Republican senator in history.
Less than three months after the FBI searched his Alaska home in a bribery and public corruption probe, Stevens proved he hasn't lost an ounce of clout. He added an incredible $215 million in earmarks to the defense bill - more than any other senator.
An earmark is a grant of money without the normal public review. Thanks in large part to Stevens, sparsely populated Alaska outranks the rest of the nation - getting a disproportionate benefit when it comes to earmarks.
Texans get $98 per person worth of earmarks. New York's about the same. But when it comes to the Last Frontier state, so much federal money is pouring in to so few - it works out to more than $4,300 dollars per person.
What are some of the projects?
Well, it may not seem like a national priority, but more than $1 million has gone to try to create a market for salmon baby food: Alaska salmon baby food.
Stevens, known for funding Alaska's infamous "bridges to nowhere" is also behind what critics might call a "ferry to nowhere." He's earmarked $58 million so far to the ferry project that would serve a little-used port in Alaska.
Ever see a flying salmon? A jet was painted like a giant salmon with a half-million dollar grant from a non-profit group promoting Alaska seafood. Stevens steered tens of millions of dollars to the group - headed at the time by his own son Ben - from a federal fund to promote U.S. fish products.
The Senator wouldn't agree to talk to us, but his office told us: the baby food and salmon jet promote the Alaska seafood industry, which is in crisis, other states get similar earmarks for their industries, and that $58 million ferry will foster growth and create up to 200 jobs in Alaska.
The office also said that many Alaska earmarks are military-related and benefit the service members stationed there.
Some members of Congress might say "we’re just doing our job. We’re supposed to bring home as much resources to our districts as we can," Attkisson said.Read the response sent to CBS News by Sen. Ted Stevens’ spokesman in response to questions before the story aired (Oct. 10, 2007)
Couric & Co. Blog: Why Alaska’s Not Left Out In The Cold
Watch Attkisson's extended interview with Steve Ellis
“Their job isn’t to bring home every single thing that isn’t bolted down here in Washington back to their home states,” Ellis said.
Some would say that's what Stevens does best: turn federal dollars into pork - or fish - making the 49th state, No. 1 when it comes to those tantalizing earmarks.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Michelle Obama tells how her role as the First Lady has changed her perspective.
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See all 31 Commentshttp://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9946871
How does "pork barrel" make any sense today anyway?
Flying Salmon politics.
Vote for term limits when available.
Vote OUT of office any politician, state or federal, who has spent more than two terms in office.
The Stevens, Byrd, Kennedy, Warner, et al, have outlived their duty to the entire country. Only feathering ones nest is not enough in this day and age. It is time for them to go.
The malingerers, feeding at the public trough for many years, should be replaced with younger people with more idealistic ideas. And then vote them out also after two terms, regardless of party.
Posted by tibu987 at 05:04 PM : Oct 13, 2007
I doubt any representative/senator cares that much about anything except keep their job. Thus the pork. If someone is funneling $$$ into your area, maybe employing many people, or helping a particular city/county/state, do you really believe those people are going to vote against him/her?
As for those feeding at the public trough, I have oftimes believed that those people should not be allowed to vote. If you are living on the gov''t dole, what are you going to vote for, someone who will cut benefits, or require stricter guidelines to be eligible, NO, you will vote for the status quo. Many on the public dole don''t pay any taxes, but have a role in determining where our tax dollars go.
I guess so.
Posted by sparks224 at 03:09 PM : Oct 13, 2007
That would depend on the family. Children oftimes emulate their parents/guardians activities, whether by raising/training or self determination.
Are you transmitting some sort of secret coded message or are you just a complete moron? Most of us out here who read these posts don''t possess a secret decoder ring so please give us a break and try to post coherent sentences. Thank you.
Posted by tibu987
That''s the problem...getting them up for vote. Americans can''t make it much clearer in the last election, giving the Dems control. Problem is, the Dems were stupid enough to believe they were voted in because they were so superior and directly connected to what Americans wanted...and they haven''t listened to one word since. They were elected as a statement to all of Congress...no one is in there except that the people want you there. Congress is NEVER going to submit and pass a bill that limits their terms in office. Serving in Congress should not be seen as a career choice, which it is now. Kennedy is so rooted it will take an undertaker to get him out.
I have been saying for 20 years that Congress should only get to stay for two terms and the president one...6 years...and then out. If they can''t fulfill their campaign promises in 2 terms (president 6 years), then they aren''t likely going to do it, given that re-election campaigning take up so much time. Just about 2 years of a presidents time is spent on re-election campaigning. Get rid of the re-election c..rap, give him time to clean up after the last president and the rest of the time is quality service.
Now...whom do you think will ever get this done...Congress? Might as well pass out steak knives for them to cut their own throats...and even then they wouldn''t get it done quick enough.
Vote for term limits when available.
Vote OUT of office any politician, state or federal, who has spent more than two terms in office.
The Stevens, Byrd, Kennedy, Warner, et al, have outlived their duty to the entire country. Only feathering ones nest is not enough in this day and age. It is time for them to go.
The malingerers, feeding at the public trough for many years, should be replaced with younger people with more idealistic ideas. And then vote them out also after two terms, regardless of party.
I guess so.
VOTE THEM OUT OF OFFICE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Simple as that.
VOTE RON PAUL FOR PRESIDENT.......
'' ... 300 hike naked dance dressed folk in 300 days to 300 weeks visiting up to 36 sick beds and 36 villages each night dancing get well feed world songs rallied around 100s millions sick beds drifting 10s millions spore bloom weed dragon trail fickle first aid lunch farm cottage studio trail crossing yseedsberry trail groups can assemble 90,000 little museums of medical you are here map song dance skit kit and still squeeze in up to 20 minutes each day of danceing porno get sick tax world songs ... ''
It''''s easy to say this republican leads the pack - if you look at it on a PER CAPITA basis. What''''s the population of Alaska? CBS - biased as always.
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Posted by infidel_us at 09:29 AM : Oct 13, 2007
By the way this was over stated by them check the government statics or did you forget that is where we keep really important data. But the Bushbots just change it to make it meet there agenda.
The ferry they speak of will create more than 200 jobs, with this ferry population expantion will be possible, housing will need to be built, roads, stores etc., plus travel for thousands will be safer every day. Don''t just count the population, size matters elsewhere... I may not agree w/ Stevens, but you better believe he helps increase the value of the entire US by keeping the largest and most valuable state in the nation federaly funded as it should be.
''The senator''s remarks about misplaced spending priorities came as a government-spending watchdog group, the Washington-based Citizens Against Government Waste, awarded Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Schumer the "Porker of the Year" award after an online poll rated the New York Democrats as America''s most wasteful legislators. The award is given to politicians "who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers," according to a press release announcing the prize.
The award, and Mrs. Clinton''s comments faulting pork as a cause of insufficient homeland security funding, also come a month after The New York Sun reported that Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Schumer had secured $123 million in Defense Department funds for New York projects for which the Defense Department had not requested funding, but that had benefited contributors to the New York senators'' election campaigns.
Two of Mrs. Clinton''s opponents in this year''s Senate race, John Spencer, a Republican former mayor of Yonkers, and Jonathan Tasini, an anti-war Democrat, immediately pounced on Mrs. Clinton''s speech yesterday as "hypocritical."''
No, but I remember democrats coming in to power promising meaningful EARMARK REFORM! That probably explains why she''s trying to bury her record.
Clinton has deftly spread federal taxpayers'' money around to parochial projects of questionable public value, sending, for example, $250,000 to the Seneca Knitting Mill, and $200,000 to the Buffalo Urban Arts Center.
Maybe you should take that metal plate out of your skull and use it for your foot. Sieg Heil - A$$whipe!
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