Recently, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s earmark for the Woodstock Museum has gotten a lot of attention courtesy of the Republican Presidential Debate.
Sen. Clinton and Sen. Schumer both Democrats from New York, included this million dollar earmark in the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education spending bill. This earmark was destined to create a museum honoring the 1969 Woodstock music festival. Thankfully, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) managed to kill this earmark by a voice vote on the Senate floor.
As we have seen time and time again, USA Today uncovered that Allen Gerry, the owner of the Woodstock site, where the museum would have been constructed, made large contributions to Schumer’s and Clinton’s campaigns after the earmark was included in the bill.
On another note, an earmark I questioned on the House floor by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), managed to slip by once again on the floor of the Senate. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) offered an amendment to strike Mr. Rangel’s infamous “Monument to Me”, a $2 million dollar earmark to create the “Charles B Rangel Center for Public Service and the Charles Rangel Library at the City College of New York”, from the bill.
After his amendment failed, Sen. DeMint commented that, “Washington has reached the point of absurdity when a member of Congress can create a monument to himself at taxpayer expense,” I’m embarrassed that my Senate colleagues didn’t have the courage today to stand up for taxpayers.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself.