Reason.tv: Pork Party House! Where DC Insiders Go for Tax-Subsidized Fun

First Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) surrenders his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee amid an ethics investigation. Now Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) proposes an idea that she hopes will help her make good on her promise to help lead “the most ethical Congress in history”—a party-wide ban on earmarks. Will it happen? Don’t bet on it. Reason.tv’s “Pork Party House” helps explain why neither party can resist the pull of pork.

If you’re a politician, lobbyist, or insider and you’re in the mood to party, check out a Washington D.C. mansion called the Sewall-Belmont House. Party with senators and celebrities at thousand-dollar-a-plate fundraisers! You might even get to ride a mechanical bull! The Sewall-Belmont House hosts so many A-list events, you might be surprised to find out that your tax dollars help fund this hotspot for Washington insiders. “Over the last 10 years, the Sewall-Belmont House has gotten over $3.4 million in earmarks,” says Leslie Paige of Citizens Against Government Waste.

Reporters often highlight the most ridiculous examples, but politicians have learned how to make their pork projects sound uncontroversial, even appealing. Just say your project will help children, senior citizens, or—if you really want to slip under the radar—direct taxpayer dough to a museum.

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Tags: Charlie Rangel, citizens against government waste, duke cunningham, earmark reform, jeff flake
Posted Mar 9th 2010 at 2:01 pm in Congress, Earmarks, Pork Report, federal spending | 8658212 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/ngillespie/2010/03/09/reason-tv-pork-party-house-where-dc-insiders-go-for-tax-subsidized-fun/Reason.tv%3A+Pork+Party+House%21+Where+DC+Insiders+Go+for+Tax-Subsidized+Fun2010-03-09+22%3A01%3A10Nick+Gillespie

Bailing out British Booze: Charlie Rangel, Max Baucus, and Diageo

The recent ruling of the House Ethics committee against Charlie Rangel has attracted a tremendous amount of attention and has put substantial pressure on House Democrats, especially Nancy Pelosi. The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder even reported one Democratic strategist claiming that it “loses us the House.” The basics of the story are that Rangel and his staff failed to disclose a series of facts about corporate sponsored trips about Caribbean policy.

However, there’s another Caribbean scandal that could burn Democrats. In February, Pro Publica’s Marcus Stern reported that Congress and the Virgin Islands will give British alcohol conglomerate Diageo a $3b subsidy if they shift production from Puerto Rico to the US Virgin Islands. Previously, I had written about this issue, including Rangel’s threats against the Puerto Rican health system.

But now an ad, pictured here, is running in Montana asking Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus why he is putting up with this. That’s turning up the heat a little.

Another rum producer told the Billings Gazette that the subsidy “is so large it’s twice the cost of production.”  That is, if Diageo spends $100 making rum in the Virgin Islands, they get $200 from the federal government. Then Diageo gets to sell the rum too! Diageo’s 2008 operating profit was £2.2 billion and 2009 sales were $20 billion.

Now, I understand — disagree but understand — US taxpayers giving struggling American farmers a subsidy to make ethanol. (rum is also ethanol) I don’t understand why US taxpayers are giving billions to an already highly profitable, publicly traded British booze company.

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Tags: Charlie Rangel, corporate welfare, Diageo, Max Baucus, Rum
Posted Mar 5th 2010 at 1:49 pm in Congress, Pork Report | 8216258 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/sdayton/2010/03/05/bailing-out-british-booze-charlie-rangel-max-baucus-and-diageo/Bailing+out+British+Booze%3A+Charlie+Rangel%2C+Max+Baucus%2C+and+Diageo2010-03-05+21%3A49%3A32Soren+Dayton

Saturday Open Thread: Rangel Edition

This week, the House Ethics Committee found that Rep. Charlie Rangel, Chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, violated House rules. There are more pending investigations.

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Tags: Charlie Rangel, ethics violations, Ways and Means Committee
Posted Feb 27th 2010 at 3:04 am in Open Threads | 81434109 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/02/27/saturday-open-thread-rangel-edition/Saturday+Open+Thread%3A+Rangel+Edition2010-02-27+11%3A04%3A33Publius

Pelosi Fact Check: Rangel Did Violate House Rules

Its been another week that I’m certain the Democrats in DC are happy to put behind them. Happy too, probably, that another snowicane slammed the Northeast. Anything to distract any part of the populace from what can only be described as a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad week.

A few weeks ago, the Democrats loudly proclaimed they would “pivot to jobs” and public concerns about spending. But, their addiction to ‘comprehensive health reform’ proved too powerful, culminating in one last, ‘we really mean it this time’ effort to pass a proposal opposed by a majority of the public. Yesterday’s surreal six-hour gab-fest/lecture on the topic was almost too bizarre to invite further comment. I mean, the spectacle speaks for itself. How did this ever seem like a good idea, even on paper. Giving the GOP a national platform to talk intelligently on health care is certainly an interesting strategy to pass ObamaCare. Clearly, too brilliant for me to understand.

As if the ’summit’ debacle weren’t enough for Democrats to welcome the weekend, we now get the revelation that, according to the House Ethics Committee, Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) did in fact violate House ethics rules. (Shock!) Of course, simple facts aren’t really a problem for House Speaker Pelosi. If they are inconvenient, she’ll just pick some new ones. From today’s The Hill:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she’s once again sticking by embattled Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) — at least for now.

Pelosi (D-Calif.) said during a Friday press conference that she had not yet read the full report from the ethics committee, which admonished Rangel, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, for improperly accepting reimbursement for two trips to the Caribbean.

“All I saw was the press release where they said he did not violate the rules of the House,” Pelosi said. “And I think that’s an important statement that they made.”

Fine except, you know, he did violate the rules of the House.

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Tags: blair house summit, Charlie Rangel, ethics violation, Nancy Pelosi, Ways and Means Committee
Posted Feb 26th 2010 at 12:01 pm in Congress, Justice/Legal, News, Politics | 8127087 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mikeflynn/2010/02/26/pelosi-lied-rangel-did-violate-house-rules/Pelosi+Fact+Check%3A+Rangel+Did+Violate+House+Rules2010-02-26+20%3A01%3A20Mike+Flynn

Sen. Harkin and Rep. Charlie Rangel Both Have Same CBO Story; Healthcare Deal Was Done BEFORE MA Election

As reported in a previous article, Senator Harkin clearly contradicted President Obama when he stated:

Labor leaders had announced an agreement with White House and congressional representatives over an excise tax on high-cost insurance plans on the Thursday before the special election.

Harkin said “we had an agreement, with the House, the White House and the Senate. We sent it to [the Congressional Budget Office] to get scored and then Tuesday happened and we didn’t get it back.” He said negotiators had an agreement in hand on Friday, Jan. 15.

Harkin made clear that negotiators had reached a final deal on the entire bill, not just the excise plans, which had been reported the previous day, Jan. 14.

Harkin said the deal covered the prescription-drug “donut hole,” the level of federal insurance subsidies, national insurance exchanges and federal Medicaid assistance to states.

Senator Harkin would know if a deal was done as he was in the marathon meeting at the White House on January 13, 2010. On the same day, Obama, Pelosi, and Reid put out a brief joint statement:

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Tags: Barack Obama, Charlie Rangel, conference committee, Harry Reid, health care
Posted Feb 2nd 2010 at 2:41 pm in Big Labor, Congress, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 6857473 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/sahiller/2010/02/02/sen-harkin-and-rep-charlie-rangel-both-have-same-cbo-story-healthcare-deal-was-done-before-ma-election/Sen.+Harkin+and+Rep.+Charlie+Rangel+Both+Have+Same+CBO+Story%3B+Healthcare+Deal+Was+Done+BEFORE+MA+Election2010-02-02+22%3A41%3A40SusanAnne+++Hiller

Bob Creamer, Architect of ObamaCare, and His Pattern of Corruption

Before left-wing activist Bob Creamer escorted his wife, Illinois Democratic Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky to the Obama state dinner, before he penned his blue print for the socialist agenda from his federal prison cell, before he committed felony bank fraud and was indicted on 34 counts involving misuse of $2.4 million, this Saul Alinsky disciple reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars from a campaign finance scam that illegally funneled money from deep-pocket Democrat donors  and labor unions to targeted congressional campaigns.

Creamer left his position as head of the ACORN-affiliated Citizen Action/Illinois in 1997 after financial irregularities at the activist organization garnered the attention of federal investigators.  Despite the ongoing federal investigation, Creamer turned to political consulting, bringing his bare-knuckle ACORN tactics to bear on behalf of numerous Democratic candidates like indicted former Governor Rod Blagojevich.  In the 2002 election cycle, Creamer’s Strategic Consulting Group was paid over half a million dollars by the Blagojevich campaign.  Strategic Consulting also did campaign work for Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and others, all while the feds pursued their criminal investigation.

During the period when Creamer was running Strategic Consulting Group the firm served as the primary vendor for several identically-structured campaign committees formed for the express purpose of supporting Democrat candidacies in circumvention of federal campaign laws.

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Tags: 17th District Victory fund, AFL-CIO, Barney Frank, campaign finance laws, Carpenters Union
Posted Dec 9th 2009 at 1:31 pm in Big Labor, Congress, Featured Story, Justice/Legal, News, Politics | 4364271 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/capitolconfidential/2009/12/09/bob-creamer-architect-of-obamacare-and-his-pattern-of-corruption/Bob+Creamer%2C+Architect+of+ObamaCare%2C+and+His+Pattern+of+Corruption2009-12-09+20%3A31%3A20Capitol++Confidential

DeMint Proposes Constitutional Amendment Targeting Career Politicians

From the Washington Times:

Charles Rangel (D-NY) was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1970.

Sen. Jim DeMint says Washington politicians are like fruit on the vine: the longer they hang around, the more rotten they get.

The South Carolina Republican – hearkening back to the days of the party’s “Contract with America” – on Tuesday offered a fix to the corrupting influence of “permanent politicians,” introducing an amendment to the Constitution that would limit Senate members to three six-year terms and House members to three two-year terms.

“As long as members have the chance to spend their lives in Washington, their interests will always skew toward spending taxpayer dollars to buy off special interests, covering over corruption in the bureaucracy, fundraising, relationship building among lobbyists, and trading favors for pork – in short, amassing their own power,” said Mr. DeMint, who is running for a second term next year. (more…)

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Tags: Charlie Rangel, Constitution, Contract with America, Jim DeMint, lobbyists
Posted Nov 11th 2009 at 12:07 pm in Congress | 2910696 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/11/11/demint-proposes-constitutional-amendment-targeting-career-politicians/DeMint+Proposes+Constitutional+Amendment+Targeting+Career+Politicians2009-11-11+19%3A07%3A13Publius

House Ethics Panel Expands Rangel Probe

Politico has the latest on the gathering clouds surrounding Ways and Means Committee Chair, Rep. Charlie Rangel:

Embattled Rep. Charles Rangel (N.Y.) is headed for more trouble as the House ethics committee announced Thursday it has expanded its investigation to include Rangel’s financial disclosure reports, which show hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously undeclared personal assets and income.

The growing investigation comes as Rangel continues to fight off Republican attempts to oust him from his chairmanship – the House voted largely along party lines on Wednesday to allow Rangel to keep his gavel while the ethics panel continues its months-long probe of the Harlem Democrat.

The ethics panel also disclosed Thursday that it has issued nearly 150 subpoenas as part of its year-long Rangel investigation, interviewed 34 witnesses and combed through thousands of pages of documents related to the New York Democrat’s personal finances. The vote to widen the already sprawling investigation was unanimous.

In July, Rangel quietly filed amended financial disclosure documents, going back to 2001, showing at least $600,000 in assets that he had never previously declared.

Read the whole thing here:

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Tags: Charlie Rangel, financial disclosure documents, House Ethics Committee, subpoenas, Ways and Means Committee
Posted Oct 8th 2009 at 1:52 pm in Congress, News, Politics | 1460237 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/10/08/house-ethics-panel-expands-rangel-probe/House+Ethics+Panel+Expands+Rangel+Probe2009-10-08+20%3A52%3A21Publius

ALG Condemns House for Blocking Resolution Removing Rangel as Committee Chair

From Americans for Limited Government:

October 7th, 2009, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today condemned members of the House for voting to refer a resolution that would have removed Congressman Charlie Rangel as Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

“Once again, the Democrat-controlled House has voted to sweep outright corruption under the rug on behalf of a fellow party member who failed to report more than $1 million in outside income as required by House rules,” Wilson said.

“The least Congress can do is not have Rangel serving as Chairman of a committee that deals with taxes while an ‘ongoing’ ethics probe into his undisclosed income is taking place,” Wilson added.

The Resolution, proposed by Congressman John Carter, called for Rangel to be removed as Ways and Means Chairman until the Ethics Committee concludes its probe.

Instead, the House voted 246 to 153 to refer the resolution to the Ethics Committee. “A vote to refer the Rangel resolution to the Ethics Committee was a vote against the resolution, plain and simple,” said Wilson. (more…)

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Tags: Americans for Limited Government, Bill Wilson, Charlie Rangel, House Ethics Committee, House Ways and Means Committee
Posted Oct 7th 2009 at 12:17 pm in Congress | 1413069 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/10/07/alg-condemns-house-for-blocking-resolution-removing-rangel-as-committee-chair/ALG+Condemns+House+for+Blocking+Resolution+Removing+Rangel+as+Committee+Chair+2009-10-07+19%3A17%3A43Publius