8 thoughts on “Lamborn Biggest Earmarker in Colorado”

1. Nancy Pelosi passed a rule requiring all Representatives to post a link on their websites to their earmark requests for this year by Saturday April 4th.  Here are the grand totals.

   Colorado’s seven Reps have requested $1.045 Billion in 167 earmarks.  That gives you an average earmark of $6.26 million.  The US Census currently estimates that Colorado’s 2007 population was 4,861,515.  That means that every man woman and child in Colorado just got saddled with $215 in earmark spending.

   Democrats requested 150 of the 167 earmarks (89%).  The dollar figures are more stunning, democrats requested $972,948,470 (93%) of the total amount.

   Perlmutter is the pork king of Colorado with $361.6 million in earmarks (34%) which is almost 1/3 of the total earmarks.  Perlmutter also has five of the top ten largest earmarks.  Perlmutter averages $10.96 million per earmark.  That averages to $521 per constituent of CD7

   http://perlmutter.house.gov/PR…

   DeGette is 2nd in the pork sweepstakes with $252.2 million in earmarks (24%) which is almost 1/4 of the total earmarks.  DeGette has three of the top ten largest earmarks.  DeGette averages an astonishing $19.4 million per earmark.  That averages to $363 per constituent of CD1

   http://degette.house.gov/?sect…

   John Salazar has been accomplished at bringing home pork with $241.4 million in earmarks which at 23% is almost 1/4th of the total earmarks.  What is astonishing is that Salazar requested 72 of the 167 earmarks.  Salazar has the 9th largest earmark request at $17million and has an average of $3.3 million per earmark.  That averages to $347 per constituent of CD3.

   http://www.house.gov/salazar/a…

   Jared Polis has been quick to learn how to use earmarks to advantage with $98.2 million in requests.  Polis has the 5th largest earmark request at $48.4million and averages $6.1 million per request.  That averages to $141 per constituent in CD2.  

   http://polis.house.gov/Issues/…

   Lamborn made $72.5 million in earmark requests for his district.  Lamborn’s largest request was for $8.9 million which was the 19th largest request.  Lamborn averages $4.26 million per earmark.  That averages to $104 per constituent of CD5.

   http://lamborn.house.gov/Issue…

   Betsy Markey requested $19.5 million in earmark requests.  Her largest request was for $3 million (76th largest) and her average request was for $1.2 million.  That averages to $28 per constituent in CD4.

   http://betsymarkey.house.gov/C…

   Mike Coffman made no earmark requests.

   http://coffman.house.gov/

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   1. That cites news organizations. The report is for the FISCAL year, which goes back to last October. Pelosi’s request is for the CALENDAR year.

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      1. Pot, meet kettle.

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      2. Lamborn, whose district includes Colorado Springs, said Tuesday that the watchdog’s group definition was too broad, and that it should not have included the seven military-related funding requests it attributed to him.

         “I don’t ask for earmarks,” he said. “Earmarks are done in the middle of the night.”

         Lamborn said his funding requests “go through the entire process in the light of day. These requests start out in the authorizing committee.

         They are subject to amendment and debate in committee. Then they go to the floor of the House and they’re once again subject to amendment and debate.”

         He also said that because all his funding requests were defense-related, “they addressed a national issue,” and therefore did not serve a local interest even if they were for projects in and around Colorado Springs.

         http://www.gazette.com/article…

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2. I fully expect my Congresswoman to do her job and get earmarks for my district.  We need the money!  FASTRACKS, highway construction, new buildings on the CU Campus, more money for college kids, etc.  How are these pork?  I call it stimulus and an investment.  If DeGette/Bennet/Udall don’t get us pork, I’d be the first in line to fire them.

   This pork-is-bad nonsense is a figment of the imagination of some do-gooder-liberal-and-conservative quackers who have nothing to do all day but point fingers.  $19bn out of a $4trillion budget is nothing.

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3.    This is the same guy who franked mail til he dropped during his first term.  
   
     How appropriate that you should remind us of his propensities towards wasteful government spending on April 15th!

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4. There are earmarks for specific projects etc. that are included in the appropriations bills after being discussed and voted on in committee and then voted upon on the floor of the House and Senate. We have always earmarked money for specific projects. I certainly wouldn’t vote for each and everyone of them but as long as they are considered in committee and debated and voted upon on the floor, I can’t really object.

   The second kind of earmark are the kind I think most of us across the entire political spectrum agree should not be tolerated. Those are the earmarks added to an appropriations bill by instructions from individual members of congress after the bill has been passed. These are never considered in committee or voted upon on the floor. Those are the ones that should be eliminated.

   The real issue here is which kind are these earmarks for each member of the Colorado delegation.

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5. That’s just…weird.

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