Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) named House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) September 2021 Porkers of the Month for endangering America’s financial stability with their massive spending plan.

Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Sanders are leading the charge to pass a $3.5 trillion spending bill that would devastate the economy and dramatically increase the size, scope, and power of the federal government. Sen. Sanders claims he has already been through a lot of “negotiations and pain” while debating the package, and says he has “already made a major, major compromise” with his original $6 trillion plan. Speaker Pelosi is “pretty excited” and “very exhilarated” over the taxes and spending contained in the $3.5 trillion budget, and found the time to add $200 million for the Presidio Park, which says on its website that it operates “at no cost to taxpayers.” Both Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Sanders should listen to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who says everyone should slow down and take a break since Congress has already spent trillions. But so far, his warning that “our policy choices will create a disastrous future for the next generation of Americans” is falling on deaf ears. Instead of increasing spending at an unacceptable pace, Congress should be cutting waste by considering the recommendations in the 2020 Prime Cuts, which would save taxpayers $4 trillion over five years.

CAGW President Tom Schatz said, “The budget plan is a giant insult to taxpayers, especially when $3.5 trillion isn’t enough for Sen. Sanders and Speaker Pelosi is ‘pretty excited’ about spending that much money. The government has already spent more than $5.7 trillion on pandemic “relief,” yet they want to spend even more. No one should be ‘excited’ or ‘exhilarated’ if they succeed. For pushing the U.S. toward bankruptcy and socialism, Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Sanders are CAGW’s September Porkers of the Month.”

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. For more than two decades, Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers and government officials who have shown a blatant disregard for the taxpayers.