Washington, D.C. – The following is a prepared statement by Keith Ashdown, Vice President of Policy at Taxpayers for Common Sense:

First, we would like to say that we love groundhogs, they are cute, furry and generally don’t waste our money. We welcome Punxsutawney Phil to this historic city. But, we wish it could be under better circumstances and that Mr. Phil wasn’t at the short end of a public relations stunt that awakened him from his four month long siesta. Just let Phil sleep, no pork is worth waking this poor creature up from a well deserved nap.

Also, by doing a little research, it has come to our attention that groundhogs don’t even like pork, especially the kind that comes from Washington, DC. Groundhogs are primarily vegetarians. They enjoy fruits and vegetables, including lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers. They also eat a variety of wild plants, including grass, clovers, alfalfa, the leaves of certain trees, and some flowers.

The bottom line is that every congressional district in the nation would love to have a federally funded museum. However, the districts that get them are the ones that are represented by powerful politicians on appropriations committees. From his seat on the appropriations committee, Rep. Peterson was able to secure $100,000 for the Weather Museum that neither the administration nor the Senate requested. It has also come to our attention that this new museum will be getting the same amount of money that the Punxsutawney Area Hospital received for facilities and equipment from the Congress.

Ultimately, the issue is not that the Punxsutawney Weather Discovery Center, the B.B. King Museum, or Mariachi music education in Nevada all received funds in the bill. The shame is that that money was allocated through congressional earmarks, allowing each project to bypass local funding channels and skip past any meaningful evaluation. If Representative Peterson truly believes that the Weather Discovery Center is a national priority, we encourage him to fund it, but we also ask that he show his commitment to fighting pork by substantially reducing the number of earmarks he asks for each year. TCS gratefully accepts Representative Peterson’s invitation to visit the museum, and we extend an invitation of our own for Representative Peterson to join us in our fight to reform the appropriations process and send pork packing.

Contact: Keith Ashdown
(202) 546-8500 x110