News-Record.com

And Citizens Against Government Waste is......?

... apparently not a big fan of Democrats. On the Senate side, Zell Miller is the only Democrat to crack the CAGW's top 20.

Answer this, though, Doug: If 2004 was a big year for government waste, and Republicans control the White House and both houses of Congress, why do Republicans get such high ratings?

It was founded in 1984 by J. Peter Grace and Jack Anderson, and in my opinion is one of the more credible government watchdog organizations. Grace headed the President's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control, known as the Grace Commission, under President Reagan. Anderson was an investigative reporter/columnist. He worked for Drew Pearson and took over the Washington Merry-Go-Round column after Pearson's death in 1969, continuing it for many years.

John, I guess it's a lot easier to make the top 20 these days when almost everyone's a big spender.

In other words, there are only 20 people trying to curtail government spending these days, and 19 of them are Republicans?

Actually, that makes a little sense.

I don't think it means that exactly, but it's definitely getting harder to find fiscal conservatives in Washington -- even with the Republicans in charge.

Dare we pine for the good old days of Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich?

Doug, I doubt many in the Triad know the straight scoop regarding Miller and Watt on matters such as these. I seem to recall that their districts extend well beyond the Triad, so it is difficult to know what their other constituents might know about them.

Joe, that is a problem. Miller lives in Raleigh, Watt in Charlotte, yet both represent portions of Guilford County. Congressional districts are intentionally distorted for the benefit of incumbents, without much regard for what the voters know or can learn about the candidates.

I'm all for eliminating wasteful spending, but the relatively few votes highlighted by this group don't begin to get at the big pictures of 1) government efficiency and 2) tax fairness, even though the group claims to be watching out for "our tax dollars."

For example, I don't see anything on here about better accountability for money being spent in Iraq. We know the amount unaccounted for there is already in the billions, which dwarfs many of the items that did make the list. And although this will be a matter for fiscal year 2006, not one that has already taken place, spending on hurricane recovery is already a problem: Why, for example, pay companies to build trailers for displaced residents when it would be easier, and much cheaper, simply to pay their rent in existing, privately owned housing, as HUD's Section 8 program does?

Then there's the item about eliminating funding for UN inspection of U.S. elections. As someone who has examined a fair amount of research into the subject of U.S. elections (info here, I think the money saved there, although not negligible, might well have been an example of being penny-wise and pound -foolish: Our election system is a disgrace and has been for quite some time.

All this "survey" tells us is what we already knew: When they get committee chairmanships, appropriations-committee seats or other means of leveraging the bacon for their states/districts, our congresscritters are dismayingly bipartisan.