This from the Citizens Against Government Waste website (soon to be linked on the sidebar). Makes ya think, eh?
Congratulations, Tiger, Now Give Back Our Tax Dollars!
(Washington, D.C.) Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today congratulated Tiger Woods on winning his fourth Masters title and asked him to return the $100,000 federal grant given to his foundation to help build a $25 million education center in Orange County, California. CAGW last week released the 2005 Congressional Pig Book, its annual list of pork-barrel projects in the federal budget, and singled out the project by giving it the “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Pork Award.” The project has become a posterchild for government waste and excess.
“Yesterday Tiger Woods pocketed $1.26 million and regained the world’s top ranking with a superb performance against challenger Chris DiMarco,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said. “Perhaps he can ‘chip in’ $100,000 from his prize money to pay for this project instead of having taxpayers foot the bill.”
The Tiger Woods Foundation has net assets of nearly $32.6 million. Forbes magazine ranks Tiger as the world’s top-paid professional athlete, earning $80.3 million in 2004, including $70 million in endorsements. Meanwhile, the federal budget deficit is expected to hit a record $427 billion in fiscal 2005 and the national debt is inching toward $7.8 trillion.
“A government that is nearly $7.8 trillion in the red should not be giving tax dollars to a group that is $32.6 million in the black,” Schatz continued. “Any project associated with Tiger Woods should be the last entity eligible for a federal handout.”
The 2005 Congressional Pig Book identified 13,997 projects in the 13 fiscal 2005 appropriations bills, an increase of 31 percent over last year’s total of 10,656. In the last two years, the total number of projects has increased by 49.5 percent. The cost of these projects in fiscal 2005 was $27.3 billion, or 19 percent more than last year’s total of $22.9 billion. In fact, the total cost of pork has increased by 21 percent since fiscal 2003. Total pork identified by CAGW since 1991 adds up to $212 billion.
There is precedent for a grant recipient returning money to the U.S. treasury. In 2002, CAGW chided Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) for securing a $273,000 grant to help the city of Blue Springs, Mo. combat Goth culture. Two years later, $137,000 of the money was returned. After spending $136,000, the city concluded that there was not a Goth epidemic and citizens need not be concerned.
“The Tiger Woods Foundation should return this money to the taxpayers and forsake accepting government grants in the future,” Schatz concluded. “In the words of Happy Gilmore, ‘the price is wrong,’ Tiger!”
The complete 2005 Congressional Pig Book is available at www.cagw.org
Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.