Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) 2009 Pig Book VIDEO

Earmarks Rise to $19.6 Billion in CAGW’s 2009 Pig Book

(Washington, D.C.) - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today released the 2009 Congressional Pig Book, the latest installment in the group’s 19-year exposé of pork-barrel spending. The Pig Book revealed 10,160 earmarks worth $19.6 billion.

“Everyone in Washington has promised a new era of transparency and restraint in earmarks, from President Obama to the leaders of both parties in Congress,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz. “Sadly, the hard numbers from the 2009 appropriations bills tell a different story. The current Democratic congressional majority is following the same trajectory as their Republican predecessors. They came into power promising to cut earmarks, and made a big show of it during their first two years. However, as the 2009 Pig Book amply illustrates, pork-barrel spending is growing fast.”

While the number of specific projects declined by 12.5 percent, from 11,610 in fiscal year 2008 to 10,160 in fiscal year 2009, the total tax dollars spent to fund them increased by 14 percent, from $17.2 billion to $19.6 billion.

Much has been made of reforms that require members of Congress to identify earmarks they request and the intended recipients of earmarked funds, but CAGW uncovered 221 earmarks worth $7.8 billion that were funded in circumvention of Congress’s own transparency rules. These stealth earmarks were particularly prevalent in the 2009 Defense Appropriations Act, which included 142 anonymous earmarks worth $6.4 billion, a staggering 57 percent of the earmarked tax dollars.

The Pig Book Summary profiles the most egregious examples, breaks down pork per capita by state, and presents the annual "Oinker" Awards. All 10,160 projects are listed in a searchable database on CAGW’s website www.cagw.org. Examples of pork in the 2009 Pig Book include

• $3.8 million for the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy in Detroit;
• $1.9 million for the Pleasure Beach water taxi service in Connecticut;
• $1.8 million for swine odor and manure management research in Ames, Iowa;
• $380,000 for a recreation and fairgrounds area in Kotzebue, Alaska;
• $143,000 for the Greater New Haven Labor History Association in Connecticut;
• $95,000 for the Canton Symphony Orchestra Association in Ohio; and
• $71,000 for Dance Theater Etcetera in Brooklyn for its Tolerance through Arts initiative.

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. -###-

Coming of age on the Internet

Patti Valkenburg

In the mid-90s, the Internet seemed like a dark place. Indeed, scientific studies from that time were documenting some real risks for teenagers, including fewer close friendships and more tenuous connections with family. It appeared that teens were sacrificing real relationships for superficial cyber-relationships with total strangers.

Is this still true? Social scientists are revisiting those early concerns, and some are coming to believe that the psychological benefits may now outweigh the detrimental effects. In a new report in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science,

Jochen Peter

psychologists Patti Valkenburg and Jochen Peter of the University of Amsterdam took a look at a decade of research on these questions, and they believe two important historical changes have altered the psychological landscape.

First, the sheer number of teenagers now using the Internet has transformed the technology into a true social networking tool. Even in the late 90s, only about one in ten adolescents were online, which meant that kids actually had to choose between online relationships and real relationships. There was very little overlap, so it was very difficult to maintain flesh-and-blood relations while exploring cyberspace. Today, Valkenburg and Peter say, the vast majority of teenagers in Western countries have access to the Internet, and most appear to use the technology to nurture their existing relationships rather than to forge new ones.

Second, the newer communication tools also encourage building on existing relationships rather than isolating. In the 90s, the few teens who did spend time on the Internet tended to hang out with strangers in public chat rooms and so-called MUDS, multi-user dungeons. The appearance of instant messaging and social networks like Facebook has changed all that, according to the psychologists. Today, more than eight in ten teenagers use IM to connect with the same friends they see at school and work.

Recent studies document the positive effects of these technological changes. But what exactly is going on in the minds of the teenagers to produce this greater sense of well-being? Valkenburg and Peter believe that the 21st century Internet encourages honest talking about very personal issues - feelings, worries, vulnerabilities - that are difficult for many self-conscious teens to talk about. When they communicate through the Internet, they have fewer sounds and sights and social cues to distract them, so they become less concerned with how others perceive them. This in turn reduces inhibition, leading to unusually intimate talk.

The psychologists have also shown that "hyperpersonal" Internet talk leads to higher quality friendships, and that these quality friendships buffer teenagers against stress and lead to greater happiness. However, solitary "surfing" of the Internet has no positive effects on connectedness or well-being, and hanging around public chat rooms - though much rarer - still appears psychologically risky. ###

For more information about this study, please contact: Patti M. Valkenburg (p.m.valkenburg@uva.nl)

Wray Herbert discusses this study in his blog, "We're Only Human..." (www.psychologicalscience.org/onlyhuman/)

Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, publishes concise reviews spanning all of scientific psychology and its applications. For a copy of the article "Social Consequences of the Internet for Adolescents" and access to other Current Directions in Psychological Science research findings, please contact Barbara Isanski at 202-293-9300 or bisanski@psychologicalscience.org

Contact: Barbara Isanski bisanski@psychologicalscience.org WEB: Association for Psychological Science