I wouldn’t say its been a well kept secret, but Santorum’s previous level of obscurity for  the GOP nomination prevented his legacy of earmarks from getting its due mention.  Senator Santorum’s career in Congress was during the heyday of big government conservatism.

I once wrote a spending bill thiiis big.

With GOP colleagues like Tom Delay and Dennis Hastert, Rick Santorum was very much apart of that infamous class. For Delay, he was then ,just as he is now, an outspoken supporter of earmarks. When the new GOP class promised to curb earmark spending, Delay was quick to voice his opposition.

“I am not one of those guys. The purse strings belong to the House of Representatives, and earmarks are one of the ways to keep the executive-branch honest,” DeLay said. “Why would you give up your responsibility and your authority to the executive branch?”

As for Dennis Hastert, the former longest serving speaker in Republican history left a long legacy of earmarks and questionable deals (but not illegal from Congress’s exemption to insider trading laws) that netted both him and his associates major profits. The story goes that Hastert owned some land that was of minimal worth, so he used appropriated funds stuffed inside a transportation bill that funded a highway project near the property. The new access road caused the value to increase. Hastert then later sold the property for a substantial profit, clearing $2 million. That seems easier than bending down to pick up a quarter on a sidewalk.

These were the dark days of “compassionate” conservatism, where wild discretionary spending was available for anyone in Congress with a pen. For Rick Santorum, he used his pen towards the sum of at least $1 billion in pork-barrel projects.

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There’s a lot of attention being paid to yesterday’s landslide vote in the House to prevent a big tax increase next year. If you’re a glass-half-full optimist, you will be celebrating the good news for taxpayers. If you’re a glass-half empty pessimist, you will be angry because the bill also contains provisions to increase the burden of government spending as well as some utterly corrupt tax loopholes added to the legislation so politicians could get campaign cash from special interest groups.

If you want some unambiguously good news, however, ignore the tax deal and celebrate the fact that Senator Harry Reid had to give up his attempt to enact a pork-filled, $1 trillion-plus spending bill. This “omnibus appropriation” not only had an enormous price tag, it also contained about 6,500 earmarks. As I explained in the New York Post yesterday, earmarks are “…special provisions inserted on behalf of lobbyists to benefit special interests. The lobbyists get big fees, the interest groups get handouts and the politicians get rewarded with contributions from both. It’s a win-win-win for everyone — except the taxpayers who finance this carousel of corruption.”

This sleazy process traditionally has enjoyed bipartisan support, and many Republican Senators initially were planning to support the legislation notwithstanding the voter revolt last month. But the insiders in Washington underestimated voter anger at bloated and wasteful government. Thanks to talk radio, the Internet (including sites like this one), and a handful of honest lawmakers, Reid’s corrupt legislation suddenly became toxic.

The resulting protests convinced GOPers, even the big spenders from the Appropriations Committee, that they could no longer play the old game of swapping earmarks for campaign cash. This is a remarkable development and a huge victory for the Tea Party movement. Here’s part of the Washington Post report on this cheerful development.

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A former Heritage Foundation colleague has returned to youtube.com with a video asking taxpayers whether examples of government waste are true or false.

The video is very well done, but I feel compelled to make one additional observation. Pork-barrel spending is outrageous, and examples of government waste are useful to educate voters about profligacy in Washington, but all government spending has negative effects on the economy.

Regardless of whether it is a corrupt earmark or a squeaky-clean appropriation, all spending must be financed by taxes, debt, or printing money – and all these options are bad for economic performance. Here’s a video that gives the theoretical explanation of why govenrment spending harms economic performance, and here’s a follow-up video providing empirical evidence about the damaging impact of too much government.

By the way, Michelle’s first video also used the man-on-the-street theme, asking people during the stimulus debate whether they would rather keep more of their income instead of having politicians increase the burden of government spending. It’s also worth watching and contemplating how much better off we would be if the politicians had listened to her message.

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This week, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell will sign his eighth and final state budget (term limits prevent him from seeking re-election).  The budget passed with no tax increase, and represents $1 billion less than Gov. Rendell requested.  However, the budget merely passes the bill onto future years, and future generations, through accounting tricks and borrowing for egregious pork projects.

The budget relies on $2.7 billion in federal aid, including $850 million in Medicaid funds (FMAP) that has yet to pass Congress.  Indeed, no one believes Pennsylvania will get that much, if any, as the legislation doesn’t have enough support in the US Senate.  Gov. Rendell, along with Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, New York Gov. David Paterson and others were in Washington last week to lobby for more federal aid.

The state will use $121 million from Tobacco Settlement Funds for teachers’ pensions, which will then be backfilled, and another $35 million from other one-time sources to balance the budget.   Still unresolved are a projected $4 billion annual pension contribution hike and a $3 billion Unemployment Compensation Fund deficit.

Finally, the budget deal includes increasing the debt ceiling for the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) by $600 million.

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$300,000 in federal stimulus money pays to map radioactive rabbit turds from a helicopter

$445 million worth of congressional earmarks compromise the priorities of the Energy Department

$2.6 billion diverted from guns and ammunition for troops to pay for politicians’ pet projects

Two men imprisoned for skimming money from a $8.2 million congressional earmark funded through the Defense Department

Go fish: $1 million of stimulus funds spent to catch fish in Utah

The Federal Highway Administration urging localities to impose tolls on motorists who drive during rush hour

The Federal Highway Administration tells Indiana it has too many billboards along the state’s roads