Pork Party House: Where DC insiders go for taxpayer-subsidized fun

[Garboth]

This video is making me hungry and angry.

[socalsir]

ALL members of congress should be audited annually to insure they have not gained by selling their votes for money, perks, favors, jobs or kickbacks.

[mfsowhat]

Great

[quizerry]

It is time to start cutting the budget this is just the tip. There are over 88,000 entities that get federal aid to states for things like how to be a good father program, teaching English to immigrants, practicing abstinence things that should be cut and would be picked up by the private sector or charities. Ever organization gets handouts. There are hundreds of millions in corporate welfare to Co.like proctor and gamble or pfizer to develop and markets products which are what they already do

[fcabido]

ron paul and flake 2010

[olmofo]

lol, earmarks account for only 1% of the entire federal budget.  Thanks reason.

[Silvsilvchan]

Every little bit counts, but yeah. There are several other places we should be shedding light onto. Namely how much money we send overseas (makes up roughly a third of the budget) and how much we put towards military spending (makes up half, including some things that are counted as 'over seas' spending, military bases and 'exercises', so on and so forth).

But none the less, that doesn't mean that 1-2% isn't worth chasing down and killing too.

[UnderseaCaveman]

This is very STUPID....

EARMARKS and PORK are two very different things.... REASON TV, wake up, and do your studying first before making an Ass of yourself!

[Silvsilvchan]

Earmarks are things that are tagged onto bills that they are otherwise unrelated to.

Pork is wasteful or frivolous spending.

It isn't that difficult to realize that earmarks are usually pork.

[yojimbo3000]

Why do they need so much MORE money from the feds.

[yojimbo3000]

"The Belmont House recently reported over $4 million in total net assets in

2007, the last year for which records are available" Google it. A pdf with a lot more infor comes up.

[lenny380]

Ya- Obama has gone line by line of the Constitution to see what he does not agree with. The Government (Congress) needs a quick reality check!!!!!!!! Thanks for this video.

[Chieftain1776]

Support Rand Paul 2010! He is the only one who has taken a no-earmark pledge!

[Silvsilvchan]

I love Ron Paul, but he is pretty Earmarkish. Glad to hear his son is breaking his old man's habits, but Rand is also introducing some nastier ones. He's pretty hawkish and while I endorse over turning Roe vs Wade and turning the issue back over to the state hasn't he mentioned he wants to federally ban abortions except in cases where it endangers the mother's life?

[nesterhaus]

Lets get rid of em all-Where do we start?

[RatkoUSA]

Cowpie BBQ.. well, that explains why politicians can't open their mouths with out shit coming out.

[chuska8383]

Senator Mary Landrieu is a traitor, an extortionist, and a shameful criminal. She deserves to go to jail to rot, along with most of the other corrupt politicians in Washington.

[WSOR4025]

Earmarks are only a tiny problem of waste in Government. What we really need to do is cut entire departments. Ag, Energy, Education, Commerce, etc. We also need huge reforms to the Dept. of Defense. Ending wars, and closing most of our 700+ military bases around the world would go along way to reforming waste. Also end the FED and return to sound money. No more monetization of debts. That alone would force fiscal discipline.

[rentonsentinel]

Its time to fire up the small aircraft...

[Mastikator]

Mmm bacon.

[JanisXAChambers]

*sigh* So when do we get to the part where Gladiators kill each other to distract an angry citizenry? We're going to fall just like Rome, only much earlier.

[leftydanvball]

On Fox news there is an article that suggests that Harry Reid is "supporting" third party politics because he knows it is the only way to beat a conservative. I don't feel that very many Repulbicans have earned my vote, but it would be a shame to allow Harry Reid to stay in office. I say that we fight like hell in the primaries to get our voices heard, but then vote smart in the election to get the lesser evil. The primaries need to be where the war is fought.

[muridsilat]

It's too late for the lesser evil. We will have a complete economic meltdown if we don't completely turn around, which neither party will do. I'd personally rather have the Democrats in power when everything crashes. Otherwise, the people will mistakenly blame the Free Market and the Constitution, which the Republicans pretend to follow. If the Dems are in and the people see that Big Government is to blame for our woes, maybe they'll be ready to give liberty another chance.

[Thorbie]

I wish Jeff Flake were running against McCain in the senate primary.

[averagejoe040]

Now this is journalism.

Wish we got this kind of reporting from ABC, NBC And CBS or even the newspapers.

Instead, they are busy telling us about Obummer and how he wants to do such good things for us (even if we don't want him to)

[SantaBarbaraDianne]

Good vid!! It's about time I hear someone saying what I've thought everytime I find out a/b earmark projects--that is that if something is so important and embraced by the community, why can't they raise the money locally? I don't even vote for school bond issues b/c schools can find ways to fundraise enough money to pay--even if it means opening a store w/the student's artwork for sale, bakesale, etc.

[furyofbongos]

No, I'm not surprised at all.

[cristoballs]

geez? i didn't know i could get thumbed down so much for asking a legitimate question.

[cristoballs]

oh noes... i'm being thumbed down. keep it up. you're actually attracting more attention to my comments the more you thumb them down, idiots.

[electroplate]

You're stating the obvious. Yes, of course the $1 million Landrieu gave to Sewall-Belmont was approved by Congress. One of the main points of the video is that wasteful spending such as that is approved by Congress continuously. Congress is at fault for approving the legislation but the initiator of the pork spending is most at fault. In this example, it's Landrieu.

[cristoballs]

"Congress is at fault for approving the legislation but the initiator of the pork spending is most at fault."

that's debateable. you're sort of implying that congress is like a gullible idiot that doesn't know how to say no, and if you ask for anything, you'll probably get it.

[richcta]

The country will last as long as it takes populace to realize they can vote themselves largess from the treasury (paraphrased). And it IS the people voting themselves largess.

[Jaibones]

The most conservative member of congress has more in common with the most liberal member in congress than he has with his conservative constituents.

It is us against them. Good vs. Evil.

[NCMan28025]

True. The only difference is on the social issues. Everything else just depends on what party is in power at what time.

[MooseOfReason]

1:13 - HD bacon.

[jsh78mang]

great to see nick back on and great informitive video. Not one dollar of taxpayer money should go to parties for rich people. Period.

[ubuibiok]

...squeal on Nick the squealer, 2010 elections just might stop some squealing by them politicians that squealed away them Tea Party member dollars.

[tpsisokayiguess]

no wonder politicians are such fat fucks.

[XCritonX]

Ummmm pork.

[CountArtha]

Duke Cunningham is still a first-class badass, though.

[salmongutter]

Don't mess with Duke Cunningham or you'll get porked.

[mak1759]

Rep. Flake was never invited to the parties there.

[hrosemd]

There is simply NO way this country can survive.

Stick a fork in it.

We're done. In fact, we're burned to a crisp.

What we're watching right now is just a gang of thieves fighting amongst themselves over who gets to pull out and sell all of the copper pipe and wiring before everything collapses.

[cristoballs]

how is it these guys can call this channel "reasontv" when they leave out some of the most important details, particularly in the mary landieu portions of their video? the whole point of the of the so-called "louisiana purchase" was that landrieu was acting on behalf of gov. bobby jindal, which was in response to a shortage of some $600 million in medicaid funds after hurricaine katrina. jindal even made a statement back in nov. '09 acknowlegding this. why wasn't this mentioned in this video?

[ReginaldL]

Pork is pork. Gov Jindal can't vote in the Senate for pork. Gov Jindal or a constituent asking for pork is bad enough. The museum in DC probably bet on quid pro quo pork for the honor bestowed and it didn't honor Gov Jindal. Gov Jindal didn't award $1m to the DC museum. Sen Landrieu did.

Rep Cunningham was a Republican as Sen Landrieu is a Democrat. Seemed pretty balanced view of pork to me.

[cristoballs]

let's not be loose with our definition of what constitutes pork. there was a valid need for that $300 million dollars that landrieu got for her state. do you know anything about why she pushed for that money?

[ReginaldL]

Not to be picky or insensitive to disaster relief but you make it sound like LA received no Federal aid for Katrina. I point you to what looks like over $100b divvied up to the affected states (including Medicaid relief).

dhs . gov/xfoia/archives/gc_11576493­40100 . shtm

That $300m is pork, imho. And rest assured I'm not straining to ignore Sen Landrieu's $1m "taxpayer's gift" to that museum.

[averagejoe040]

@cristo

You gotta be kidding.

[cristoballs]

kidding? moi? kidding about what? this video was nothing more than attack piece on senator landrieu. and for what? for the million dollars that went to the sewall-belmont house. keep in mind that number equates to less than one one-millionth of our total annual budget. i'm more concerned about the hundreds of billions of dollars of pork that goes towards things like homeland security.

[hoppinglark]

@cristoballs -- "keep in mind that number equates to less than one one-millionth of our total annual budget."--

Was that a balanced budget?

[cristoballs]

what difference does that make? the point of that comment, is that i think there are bigger to fry than worrying about a $1M earmark set aside for a museum. even if you took all the money we spend on "pork" projects (not to be confused with all earmarks) you wouldn't even have a fraction of what we spend on so-called mandatory projects.

[hoppinglark]

Percentage of an annual budget is meaningless, if the budget isn't balanced, at least that's how I feel about it.

[cristoballs]

what difference does it make if the budget is balanced or not. if it's a legitimate expense, then it shouldn't matter if the budget is balanced or not. and, likewise if it isn't legitimate. are you saying that it's ok to spend on things you might consider pork so long as the budget is balanced?

[hoppinglark]

@cristoballs I get it man, you don't understand my reasoning. maybe I'm an anal retentive jerk., but if you make a point of stating that something is a small percentage of the budget, then I think it should be a balanced budget.- Maybe because I think most of the things that are paid for with pork should be funded by grants from Philanthropists / Corporations / Profits / Fundraisers

[cristoballs]

the reason i mentioned the percentage is because it seemed like the makers of this video were nitpicking. seriously, there are bigger parts of the budget i'm more concerned about that 1 million dollars going to a museum, balance budget or not.

then they even brought up stuff like the mechanical bull, as if it's part of the museum and thus was paid for with tax money. (cont.)

[cristoballs]

the fact is people, yes even politicians, have to pay to use the museum for their fundraisers and other special events.  this in turn lightens the burden on tax-payers which is needed to cover the costs of running and maintaining the museum. why was that not explained in the video?

[mo1elftausend]

It doesn't matter if they throw out 1$ or 300 million dollars out of the window. If you have any principles you only give out money to where it is needed or at least useful. And not pay back for a good party.

[cristoballs]

that's rather presumptuous, don't you think? i mean you're assuming that the only use for the sewall-belmont house is to throw parties for politicians, and that the money given to it was as a payback for allowing them to use the place.

[mo1elftausend]

I disagree with money to any museums. If the museum is so successful at hosting events it obviously does not need the money that hard to maintain its inventory.

In Germany studying on the University cost about 800-1000 euro per year and is still free in some states.

Unless the U.S. Government gives out money for education first, stop giving out money for waste.

Only exception for giving money out would be if there is a building that is a national treasure and it expensive maintance.

[cristoballs]

"Only exception for giving money out would be if there is a building that is a national treasure and it expensive maintance. "

i believe that's mainly the reason why the money was given to the museum. i'm currently looking over their tax forms for 2007. the costs of running and maintaining a museum isn't cheap. from 2000-05, the museum was receiving a little less than 400k/yr in federal funding.  (cont.)

[cristoballs]

however, from 2006-09, that funding dropped to about 35k/yr.

[mo1elftausend]

Good job researching. While I myself am a huge supporter of Libertarian principles. People need to have a sense of realism. History is worth to be preserved.

[cristoballs]

uhhhh... thanks? sorry, i've been pelted with so much negative feedback (thumbs down) that i don't know if you're being sarcastic or sincere.:-P

[mo1elftausend]

yeah rarely see 17 thumbs down so had to add one there. but this time I was sincere. rarely seeing someone do something else than rants in youtube comments. its some fresh air.

[cristoballs]

lol... it's cool. i was shocked when i saw how many thumbs down i was getting. i honestly saw this video as a hit piece. sure they gave the impression of being fair by talking about people like duke cunningham. but when you consider what he did, is it really fair to group landrieu with people like him?

[Silvsilvchan]

Well, the accusation she is facing IS that the three mil was thrown in to buy her vote. So it is relevant at the very least. Rather that is true or not there is no substantial proof for. She might have voted yes anyway. But just because I talk about, say as an example, Lenin and Stalin in the same sentence doesn't mean I think they were equal evils. They clearly have similarities but Stalin far outstripped his predecessor in how many he killed and was far less... lets use the word 'visionary'.

[cristoballs]

i could understand the accusation if she were actually pocketing the money for herself, but that's simply not the case. the money goes to the state. after that it's basically up to the governer (jindal) and the state legislature to determine how it will be used. what do you think the chances are jindal will be refusing federal funds this time around?

[Silvsilvchan]

How do we know? What if Jindal pocketed some and gave her her share? That isn't directed at just HER but virtually every politician. We should always be at least a little skeptical, you know?

Jindal's predecessor didn't turn down funds after Katrina. Yet there is still a massive problem. Private donations of trailer houses were sent there too. FEMA wouldn't have it because they didn't pass certain inspections. Because being in a defective house is worse than being homeless?

[Silvsilvchan]

Honestly, ignore the thumbs down. It can be disheartening but you aren't being hostile. Take it with a grain of salt.

You are just in Libertarian-ville. We see almost everything as pork. If this were say, the YoungTurks channel we'd be the ones with 17 thumbs down.

As to Landrieu and this being a hit piece... it focused on her, but it also hit several other politicians. I am shocked it didn't cite what's his face's bridge to no where.

Ha ha I can't even remember the corrupt bastard's name.

[Silvsilvchan]

Do you know there are people in Mississippi and Alabama who are still homeless after Katrina? Why should Louisiana constantly get all this money when the problem is actually WORSE in those far poorer states? Nevermind that Alabamans and Mississippians are also footing that three million price tag. Shouldn't the funding already sent to those states have helped dramatically reduce the problem? Yet it remains the same? Shouldn't we question where the money is actually going?

[jsh78mang]

2 things. 1 are you sure the money was going to that (AKA do you have proof) & 2 then why not get the money the right way instead of hiding it or at least clarify it.

[cristoballs]

1. yes, i'll forward you the news articles if you'd like. 

2. it was done the right way and it was clarified. of course you would never know that, the way jindal denied having anything to do with it. here's a clip of him avoiding questions about it on fox news of all places.

watch?v=EPKxgX3Ojj4

[thedrizzle09]

I guess political can't seem to find the line between "our" money, and "their" money. Sounds like it's time to go to marriage counseling.

[irksome1]

Bacon is kinda tasty . . .

[onvogmasaj]

kinda?! its the best! aroooooound!

[navtel]

vote all those out who waste money. publish their phone numbers and addresses in the paper so tax payers could go by and pay their respect.. congress is a pathetic joke and with the debt crisis closing in there should be no tolerance for pork spending.. obama is joke.

[dcbandnerd]

It's so hard to see who the good guys and the bad guys are on The Hill. It's dangerous to trust any of them. If Senator Flake does, indeed, walk the walk as well as talk the talk, then God bless him for it. Can we please cut down on the pork projects, at least on the federal level?

[thedrizzle09]

Indeed so true. This country needs some help. We are festering from the inside out.

[redthor77]

I really appreciate these videos you guys put out - please keep them coming!

[yougiberishtube]

5 stars

[ogrish84]

Just say no to pork. See, the Muslims had the right thing in mind.

[BeantownJim]

This is a great peice on pork Fantastic! Good job You'd never see this on loacal news or main stream! All i can say is SAVE THE MOUSE!!!!

[lordaltay5]

God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed...

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

It is foolish to think the government will simply stop spending our money if they feel they can keep getting away with it. As Jefferson said, heads must roll from time to time.

[Dpaladinx]

Yeah, earmarks kinda reminds me of bribing someone or getting something for your own personal gain. There are a few reasons why public transportation, education, and law enforcement are handled in state level.

[modernfreestyle]

This people fighting government waste are genuine heroes!