During a event to celebrate the release of Citizen’s Against Government Waste’s annual Congressional Pig Book on Wednesday, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain criticized earmarks for”alternative energy research” in defense appropriations bills, which he said cost taxpayers $120 million.
“We’re talking about cutting the Army by 100,000 people, the Marines by 80,000 people, and yet we’re now have our armed services in the business of advanced alternative energy research?” said McCain.
“The role of the armed forces in the United States is not to engage in energy research. The job of energy research should be in the Energy Department, not taking it out of Defense Department funds,” he said.
Congressman Jim Jordan later took the stage to condemn the Department of Energy for loaning money to companies he said were close to the White House.
“Whats going on right now in the Department of Energy is unbelievable,” he said. “In this Loan guarantee program 27 companies got your tax dollars. Twenty-three of those companies…were junk rated — no private money would go there and yet it was okay to put American tax dollars into these organizations, and 8 of those 23 companies had close ties to the Obama administration.”
Videography by Sarah Hofmann