Belize it or not. A place to follow the money

While I enjoy posting on this blog daily. There are times to take a break and this is one of those times. I will be heading to Belize where I will be spending a week on board a 47 foot sailing catamaran out of sight of the mainland and modern communications as much as possible. Please try to keep the country safe so that I have a country to come back to. In the meantime take a look at this site USAspending.gov. If you want to see where our money goes this may be the site to see. I like to spend more time looking at it but, I still have to pack. Be back in a week.

Earmarks: Meet the new boss same as the old boss

"Even as House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer has joined in steps to clean up pork-barrel spending, the Maryland congressman has tucked $96 million worth of pet projects into next year's federal budget, including $450,000 for a campaign donor's foundation. "

It seems Democrat Hoyer is now one of the top ten earmark providers in Congress. So much for change now that the Democrats are in power. What kind of important projects is Hoyer funding with his ear marks?

"Consider the $450,000 that Hoyer inserted into a 2008 education spending bill for the California-based InTune Foundation Group, whose Web site describes it as a music-education nonprofit group.
In 2005, InTune got a previous earmark for nearly $500,000 to develop lesson plans on funk music and Nobel Peace laureates. Asked recently how effective that program had been, Education Department officials said they didn't know. InTune hadn't turned in a report on what it did, officials said. "

I think Leslie K. Paige of the watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste says it best: "Don't we deserve to know where this money is going and who these people are?"