• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Iraq Spending Pork and the Dems

Mike

Well-known member
Clyburn sponsors golf earmark in defense bill
By Roxana Tiron | Posted: 11/7/07 9:59 p.m [ET] The Hill
November 07, 2007
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), a passionate golf player, sponsored a $3 million earmark in the 2008 military spending bill for a program that attracts disadvantaged and minority children to the game of golf.

Even though Clyburn’s earmark appears minor in the face of a $471 billion defense bill that contains about $5 billion in disclosed member projects, it stands out because it has little to do with the military and was only introduced as part of the conference negotiations between the House and the Senate.

The project is attracting criticism from watchdog organizations such as Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), which included the earmark as part of its pork alert to the 2008 defense appropriations bill.

In August the City of Columbia Golf Center was renamed the James E. Clyburn Golf Center, complete with a statue of the lawmaker. The golf center was built in 2002 with money that Clyburn helped obtain. The center is also a participant in The First Tee program, initiated by the PGA Tour and the World Golf Foundation in 1997 on the heels of Tiger Woods’ growing success in golf.

First Tee’s mission is building golf facilities in non-traditional areas to introduce the game to kids. But children do not only learn how to play the game, they are also introduced to life skills, mentoring, goal setting and educational opportunities, according to a description of the program.

The First Tee is a nonprofit youth development program and is implemented through a partnership of parents, civic and corporate leaders, state and local governments, youth-serving agencies, schools, and the golfing community.

Clyburn’s spokeswoman Kristie Greco said that the earmark is related to the military. It funds “the Life Skills character education program” at Department of Defense facilities, she said. According to Greco, the program gives children of military families a constructive recreational and educational outlet.

Days before the Columbia golf center was dedicated in Clyburn’s name, the Democratic leader introduced legislation co-sponsored with Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) to establish “First Tee Life Skills.” By amending the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, Clyburn’s bill would authorize the Secretary of Education to provide grants to agencies and non-profit organizations for “youth development programs that give youth the opportunity to develop life-enhancing values though their participation in sports, such as golf.”

This is not the first time the First Tee program is in the crosshairs of watchdog organizations. In 2004, CAGW gave the program “The Taxpayers Get Teed Off” Oinker Award for receiving $3 million in two separate appropriations bills. This year CAWG again brought attention to the new earmark in the 2008 defense bill. In 2004, the $3 million went to the First Tee program in St. Augustine, Fla., the program’s headquarters.
 

Tex

Well-known member
I would like to see the bottom of the feet of that statue just like Saddam Hussein's statue.

Who ever paid for that statue should keep it in their yard at home. If the golf association paid for it, why didn't they pay for the golf course goodies they got from the Fed. taxpayers instead?

Taxpayers paid for that statue and it should come down. It is a disgrace to honor earmarks with such self congratulatory symbols paid by taxpayers.

If the Congressman wants a statue that has meaning, let him raise all the funds with private funds, not taxpayer funds--that is just stealing for self congratulation. It is what built Saddam's statue.
 
Top