Citizens Against Government Waste

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Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) is 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. It functions as a think-tank, 'government watchdog', and advocacy group for conservative causes. Its stated goal is "to eliminate waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement in the federal government." The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) is the lobbying arm of CAGW, organized as a section 501(c)(4) organization, and therefore permitted to engage in direct lobbying activities.

Contents


[edit] History

CAGW was founded in 1984 by industrialist J. Peter Grace and syndicated columnist Jack Anderson, former members of the Grace Commission or President's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control. [1] CAGW's current President is Thomas A. Schatz. Schatz has been president since 1992. [2]

[edit] Publications

[edit] Pig Book

The Congressional Pig Book Summary (Pig Book) is a list of what CAGW calls "pork-barrel" projects in that year's appropriations bills and their sponsors.

The 2008 Pig Book identified 10,610 projects in the 11 appropriations bills that constitute the discretionary portion of the federal budget for fiscal 2008, costing taxpayers $17.2 billion. [3]

A "pork" project is a line-item in an appropriations bill that designates tax dollars for a specific purpose in circumvention of established budgetary procedures. To qualify as pork, a project must meet one of seven criteria that were developed in 1991 by CAGW and the Congressional Porkbusters Coalition.

Seven Criteria to Qualify as Pork
  1. Requested by only one chamber of Congress
  2. Not specifically authorized
  3. Not competitively awarded
  4. Not requested by the President
  5. Greatly exceeds the President’s budget request or the previous year’s funding
  6. Not the subject of congressional hearings
  7. Serves only a local or special interest. [4]


[edit] Prime Cuts

Prime Cuts is CAGW’s list of recommendations for eliminating waste in the federal government. Prime Cuts 2007 makes 750 recommendations that would save $280 billion over one year and $2 trillion over the next five years. Targets for elimination include the White House’s National Youth Anti-drug Media Campaign (saving $512 million over five years), sugar subsidies (saving $800 million over five years), and the Advanced Technology Program (saving $721 million over five years). [5]


[edit] Porker of the Month

Each month CAGW issues a press release naming its "Porker(s) of the Month", which it describes as a “dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.” Past “Porkers” include Rep. David Hobson (R-Ohio) for earmarks for a public restroom and a gas station [6] and Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) for adding $25 million for spinach growers to the fiscal 2007 emergency supplemental bill. [7] CAGW encourages the public to nominate and vote for candidates for the award. [8]


[edit] Congressional Ratings

Since 1989, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) has examined Congressional roll-call votes to determine which members of Congress are voting in what they view as the interest of taxpayers. CAGW makes public what legislators are engaging in "pork-barrel" spending based on 'key' votes for each congressional session.

For the second session of the 109th Congress, CCAGW rated 44 key votes in the House and 21 key votes in the Senate.[9]

Scorecard Categories
100% Taxpayer Superhero [10]
80% - 99% Taxpayer Hero [11]
60% - 79% Friendly
40% - 59% Lukewarm
20% - 39% Unfriendly [12]
0% - 19% Hostile [13]


[edit] Influence of CAGW

[edit] Victories

CAGW and CCAGW seek to influence public policy through public education, lobbying, and mobilization for email- and letter-writing campaigns. The organization points to a number of cases where it played a prominent role in changing public policy. Overall, CAGW claims to have helped save taxpayers $944 billion through the implementation of Grace Commission findings and other recommendations.

CAGW was one of the earliest critics of the $23.5 billion Air Force plan to lease and then buy 100 refueling tankers from Boeing Co. Congress squashed the plan after it was revealed that an Air Force official inflated the price in exchange for an executive job at Boeing.[14]


CAGW was a prominent critic of Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) and his efforts to secure a record $2.3 billion federal loan for a railroad company that once employed him as a lobbyist. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) cited an “unacceptably high risk to taxpayers” in denying the loan to the Dakota, Minnesota, and Eastern Railroad (DM&E).[15]


[edit] Positive

Washington Post - "Citizens Against Government Waste is Washington's leading opponent of pork-barrel spending. Its annual Pig Book, which lists the government's narrow giveaways, is used by news outlets worldwide to ridicule federal earmarks."[16]


Syndicated Columnist Cal Thomas - "Every taxpayer should read the Pig Book. What they are doing with our money should outrage us all. Read it before April 15 for maximum impact. Congress won't stop picking our pockets for wasteful pork projects in which the federal government has no business unless they are forced to by taxpayers. Read the Pig Book and weep. Then, get angry and do something." [17]


Newsweek - "(CAGW's) annual Pig Book (is) a catalog of government excess."[18]


20/20 - "Against Government Waste is a watchdog group that keeps track of which politicians squander the most federal money on "pork" — those expenditures that are added after the normal budget process to help a particular group instead of the nation as a whole."[19]


[edit] Negative

Senator Ted Stevens, (R- Alaska) on CAGW - "All they are is a bunch of psychopaths." -- December 27, 1999 Associated Press [20]
Note: CAGW has termed Stevens as "top porker per capita in the U.S. Congress."
"They call me 'The Pork King,' they don't know how much I enjoy it." - Sen. Robert Byrd [21]


Senator Robert Byrd (D- West Virginia) on CAGW - "You might as well slap my wife as take away the highway money from West Virginia."-- December/ January 2001 George Magazine [22]


Note: CAGW has termed Byrd as the "King of Pork"[23]with a regular feature called, "Byrd Droppings."[24]

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Microsoft's Antitrust Case (Litigation)

The Los Angeles Times reported that at least two dead people sent a form letter by CAGW opposing the antitrust case against Microsoft to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. According to the Times, family members crossed out the names on the form letters and signed for them. This brought about the "Microsoft Supported by Dead People" controversy[25] from Microsoft's and CAGW's opponents and the CAGW's response that they were not tied to Microsoft or to ATL[26].

[edit] "Freeware Initiative"

CAGW put out a press release[27] opposed to what they called the "Freeware Initiative", which they claimed would have required all Massachusetts IT expenditures in fiscal 2004 and 2005 to be made on an open source format (and revised to mandate that state agencies use only open source and open standard software by January 1, 2007).

Responding to the press release, the state's secretary for administration and finance, Eric Kriss, denied the existence of a 'Freeware Initiative' and said the state was simply considering ways to integrate disparate systems using open standards such as HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), XML (Extensible Markup Language) and Java. "I never heard that term. I never said it. We're not pursuing any kind of 'Freeware Initiative' and anyone who is saying that is making inaccurate statements," he said.[28]

[edit] CAGW and tobacco

The St. Petersburg Times reported that CAGW "got at least $245,000 from the tobacco industry", and subsequently lobbied on its behalf. Internal tobacco industry documents made available by the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement indicate that CAGW and its affiliates supported the tobacco industry in several instances. Specifically, in 2001 when an industry-sponsored bill entitled the "Youth Smoking Reduction Act" was introduced in Congress, CAGW provided a letter of support, despite the opposition of most public health organizations. [29] [30] CAGW was also contacted to by Phillip Morris to include ASSIST, a federal tobacco control program, in their Pig Book. ASSIST was considered a imminent threat to industry activities at the time. [31]

Asked about his group's tobacco work, CAGW president Tom Schatz said, "We have always welcomed contributions to support the issues we support. Many of them have to do with fighting higher taxes and more regulations."[32]


http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/kpx21c00/pdf

[edit] Other controversies

Throughout its history, CAGW has been accused of fronting lobbying efforts of corporations to give them the appearance of "grassroots" support.[33]In part, this is because CAGW has accepted donations from Phillip Morris, the Olin Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, Microsoft, Merrill-Lynch, and Exxon-Mobil.

According to the St. Petersburg Times, the Pig Book has been used to benefit corporate donors, specifically health clubs who donated to CAGW. The Pig Book listed federal grants to YMCAs who compete with those health clubs as waste. CAGW's president countered that "The Ys are there because they qualify as pork. Period."[33]

A Senate Finance Committee investigating ties between CAGW and other non-profits and Jack Abramoff in 2006 stated in a report that the non-profits: 'probably violated their tax-exempt status "by laundering payments and then disbursing funds at Mr. Abramoff's direction; taking payments in exchange for writing newspaper columns or press releases that put Mr. Abramoff's clients in a favorable light; introducing Mr. Abramoff's clients to government officials in exchange for payment; and agreeing to act as a front organization for congressional trips paid for by Mr. Abramoff's clients."'[34]

In 2007, CAGW supported a bill that would limit damages resulting from malpractice lawsuits[4]. Many consumer watchdog groups opposed the bill.[5]


[edit] References

  1. ^ Remarks on Receiving the Final Report of the President's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control in the Federal Government. President Ronald Reagan Speech October 28, 1985. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  2. ^ A Hole in the Government’s Pocket. FrontPage Magazine. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  3. ^ 'Pig book' puts pet spending in spotlight. MSNBC. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  4. ^ Congressional earmarks and pork barrel plitics. Journal of Allied Health. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  5. ^ A New Old Message for Republicans. Townhall.com. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  6. ^ Watchdog calls Hobson “Porker of the Month”. Dayton Daily News. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  7. ^ Relief for state's spinach farmers stripped from war spending bill. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  8. ^ Tired of wasteful earmarks? Vote for Porker of the Year. Pantagraph.com. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  9. ^ Organization cites Flake for his thrifty initiatives. East Valley Tribune. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  10. ^ Organization cites Flake for his thrifty initiatives. East Valley Tribune. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  11. ^ Organization cites Flake for his thrifty initiatives. East Valley Tribune. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  12. ^ CAGW: Doolittle is "Unfriendly" to Taxpayers. Red County. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  13. ^ Organization cites Flake for his thrifty initiatives. East Valley Tribune. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  14. ^ Right-Left Coalition Denounces Boeing Corporate Welfare Deal. CommonDreams.org. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  15. ^ Sen. Thune avoids being named 'Porker of the Year’. Rapid City Journal. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  16. ^ A Few Degrees of Separation From Hillary Clinton's Top Adviser. Washington Post. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  17. ^ The Capital Spenders. Jewish World Review. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  18. ^ Periscope. Newsweek. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  19. ^ John Stossel: Taxes and Pork. 20/20 ABC News. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  20. ^ Sen. Ted Stevens: Alaska's money machine. Associated Press. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  21. ^ Robert Byrd. Wikiquote. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  22. ^ No Longer The Party Of Reagan. AmericanDaily.com. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  23. ^ Sports pork is a serious problem. ESPN.com. Retrieved on April 29, 2008.
  24. ^ Byrd Droppings. Citizens Against Government Waste. Retrieved on December 19, 2006.
  25. ^ Olavsrud, Thor (August 23, 2001). Microsoft Supported by Dead People. InternetNews.com. Retrieved on December 19, 2006.
  26. ^ Schatz, Thomas A. (August 23, 2001). CAGW Criticizes LA Times Story. politech. Retrieved on December 19, 2006.
  27. ^ Citizens Against Government Waste: NewsRelease_09302003b
  28. ^ Mass. official: "Open source" reports overstated | InfoWorld | News | 2003-10-03 | By Paul Roberts, IDG News Service
  29. ^ [1], Letter supporting Youth Smoking Reduction Act by CAGW
  30. ^ [2], Letter against Youth Smoking Reduction Act by several public health agencies
  31. ^ [3],Recap of ASSIST Meeting
  32. ^ When tobacco needed a voice, CAGW spoke up and profited, St. Petersburg Times, April 2, 2006
  33. ^ a b For price, watchdog will be an advocate, St. Petersburg Times, April 2, 2006
  34. ^ "Senate Report: Five Nonprofit Groups Sold Clout to Abramoff", Washington Post, October 12, 2006. 

[edit] External links