Waste of the Day: 'The Squad' Earmarked $224 Million For Left-Wing Initiatives
Topline: A group of eight Democratic progressive U.S. House members known as “The Squad” have filed $224 million of earmarks in the federal budget since 2023 to fund pet projects based around leftist ideologies, according to OpenTheBooks.com.
Key facts: The full list of The Squad’s 203 earmarks in the last two years can be viewed here.
Twenty-one earmarks funded environmental justice and clean energy projects, focal points of the Green New Deal championed by The Squad.
That includes Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s (MA) $1 million earmark for “a network of intergenerational, trauma-informed waterfront green spaces” and $2 million to help “low-income BIPOC residents … stay cool during increasingly hot summers.”
It also includes a $1.7 million earmark from Rep. Jamaal Bowman (NY) to the Environmental Leaders of Color. The nonprofit’s goal is to “assist marginalized communities in preparing for climate change’s adverse effects … so that they can thrive like healthy plants in their natural ecosystem.”
Other earmarks from the democratic socialists went toward immigration initiatives.
Rep. Greg Casar (TX) secured $1 million for the San Antonio College Empowerment Center, which helps undocumented students enroll in the school. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez requested $500,000 for New Immigrant Community Empowerment, which has advocated for citizenship for all illegal immigrants.
Other Squad earmarks were cut from the House and reintroduced in the Senate.
Republicans refused to entertain Pressley’s request of $850,000 for affordable housing for LGBTQ seniors. So Pressley teamed with both Democratic senators from Massachusetts to pass the earmark, eviscerating Republicans for prioritizing “cruelty over compassion.”
The Squad filed a total of 113 earmarks worth $111.4 million in the 2024 federal budget. They secured 90 earmarks for $112.7 million last year when the group had only six members.
Background: Earmarks allow Congress members to use taxpayer money to fund projects in their own home district.
A bipartisan group led by the late Senator Tom Coburn and then-Senator Barack Obama helped ban earmarks in 2011 because they were often used to fund waste and corruption.
But both parties voted to reinstate earmarks in 2021, opening the pork barrel once again.
This year’s federal budget contained 8,051 earmarks worth $15.7 billion, OpenTheBooks auditors found. In 2023, lawmakers filed 7,510 earmarks for $16 billion. The dollar totals are split almost evenly along party lines.
Summary: As our national debt approaches $35 trillion, there is simply no reason that taxpayer funds should be hijacked to hand out politically-motivated freebies.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
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