August 11th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is reportedly considering Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) to be a delegate to the joint deficit reduction committee. Today, Americans for Limited Government released a report entitled “Pay-To-Play Politics” which anoints Clyburn as the “King of Schemes.” President Bill Wilson released the following comments on the potential Clyburn super-committee appointment.
“James Clyburn’s propensity for pay-to-play politics disqualifies him from serving on any committee tasked with reducing spending,” Wilson said.me
“Clyburn has earmarked over $200 million over the past six years, making him the biggest congressional spender in South Carolina,” Wilson said. “That includes a $3 million earmark to teach children to play golf after the center had renamed itself to the ‘James E. Clyburn Golf
Center,’ and built a statue in his honor.”
“Clyburn’s role on the super-committee would be to protect what he spent decades fighting for: pork-barrel spending,” Wilson added.
Other earmarks included $54.4 million for South Carolina universities in return for tens of thousands of campaign contributions and even a transportation center named after Clyburn, $2.1 million for the city of Charleston that his cousin lobbied for who gave Clyburn $3,250 in campaign money, and $1.3 million to Palmetto Health in return for $9,500 in contributions.
That included $40 million to the South Carolina State University for the James E. Clyburn
University Transportation Center, where the congressman intends to house his official papers.
The U.S. Department of Transportation cut off funding, and a federal audit was unable to determine how tax dollars had been spent. Like federal auditors, a local paper had difficulty making sense of SCSU’s finances. Records were disorganized and difficult to track down.44
Clyburn’s transportation center was also investigated by the state Legislative Audit Council. Thirteen years after receiving the initial money, the center has still not been completed.
Wilson concluded, “Politicians who talk out of both sides of their mouths on ‘pay-to-play’ have no place on any committee that is supposed to be reducing the debt. James Clyburn has been nothing but a hypocrite on this issue for his entire career.”
Attachments:
“James Clyburn: Pay-to-Play Politics,” Americans for Limited Government Research Foundation, August 11th, 2011 atwww.getliberty.org/files/ClyburnPaytoPlay8-11-11.pdf .
Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.
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