(Washington, D.C.) – The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today urged Senate GOP leaders to appoint Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) as Sen. Arlen Specter’s (D-Pa.) replacement on the Senate Appropriations Committee. 

“Sen. Specter’s departure presents the Senate minority with an excellent opportunity to begin reclaiming fiscal discipline,” said CCAGW President Tom Schatz.  “The choice of who replaces him on the Senate Appropriations Committee will indicate immediately whether the Republicans are in touch with the American people or not.  Tens of thousands of average taxpayers came out to rallies in hundreds of cities on April 15 to express their outrage over galloping federal spending and a void in meaningful oversight.  Sen. Tom Coburn is the perfect choice for the committee if Senate GOP leadership wants to signal a return to fiscal sanity and a new containment strategy for this spendthrift Congress.” 

Sen. Specter has always been a big spender of tax dollars.  His CCAGW rating for 2007 was 29 percent and he was named Porker of the Year in 2003.  Among his many earmarks for fiscal year 2009, Sen. Specter was responsible for grabbing $21,600,000 for 12 projects in the Interior Appropriations Act including $3,500,000 for the Glatfelter Tree Farm; $1,000,000 for the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area; $500,000 for a wastewater improvement project in Reading, and $200,000 for a wastewater improvement project in Milford.  He also got $37,479,000 for 186 projects in the Labor/HHS/Education Appropriations bill, including $95,000 each for Mount Aloysius Community College for college preparatory exams; Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh for renovations and equipment; Washington and Jefferson College in Washington for science education outreach programs.  In addition to his constant earmarking, Sen. Specter voted in favor of the bloated $787 billion “stimulus” package, as well as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which has already spent between $500 and $600 billion of the $700 billion available and is acknowledged to be a target-rich environment for massive fraud investigations, according to its Inspector General Neil Barofsky.

“Sen. Specter’s defection simply switches one letter in his monogram.  His anti-taxpayer voting record has been a source of increasing angst for many years,” concluded Schatz.  “In fact, his public statement today states quite emphatically that he was motivated by his desire to maintain seniority in order to continue to grab pork for Pennsylvania regardless of its effects on the federal budget.”

CCAGW is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.