“Edward William Proxmire (November 11, 1915 – December 15, 2005) was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States senator from Wisconsin from 1957 to 1989. He holds the record for being the longest-serving senator from Wisconsin.[1]
Known as a political maverick and an aggressive critic of wasteful government spending, Proxmire invented and awarded the tongue-in-cheek Golden Fleece Award to appropriations he found particularly egregious. He was a member of the Senate Banking Committee, the Senate Appropriations Committee, and the Joint Economic Committee. On the Joint Economic Committee, he exposed numerous instances of wasteful spending on military programs such as the C-5 aircraft and the F-16 fighter, as well as other government programs such as the development of a supersonic transport airplane (SST).
In August 1957, Proxmire won the special election to fill the remainder of the U.S. Senate term vacated by the May 2, 1957 death of Joseph McCarthy.[19] After assuming his seat, Proxmire did not pay the customary tribute to his predecessor and stated instead that McCarthy was a “disgrace to Wisconsin, to the Senate, and to America.”[20]
Proxmire was reelected in 1958,[21] 1964, 1970, 1976 and 1982; all but his 1964 win[22] were by wide margins, including 71 percent of the vote in 1970,[23] 73 percent in 1976[24] and 65 percent in 1982.[25] In both of his last two campaigns, Proxmire refused contributions and spent less than $200 out of his own pocket, which covered the expenses related to filing re-election paperwork, and he mailed back unsolicited contributions. He was an early advocate of campaign finance reform.[26] Throughout his Senate career, Proxmire also refused to accept reimbursements for travel expenses related to his official duties (a gesture never imitated by Republicans OR Democrats since Abe Lincoln was a storekeeper!).
Proxmire holds the U.S. Senate record for consecutive roll call votes cast: 10,252 between April 20, 1966, and October 18, 1988.[26] In doing so, he surpassed the previous record of 2,941, which was held by Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine.[28] In January 2016, Chuck Grassley broke Proxmire’s record for longest amount of time between missed votes, but during his time without missing a roll call, Grassley had cast about 3,000 fewer votes than Proxmire.
In October 1961, Proxmire issued a statement opposing a planned $22 million renovation of the U.S. Capitol by arguing that a “large part of the space created by the extension” would be used “to house private hideaway offices” for 23 senators.[32]
Proxmire continued to oppose the renovation, and the debate continued until the project was completed in the early 1970s.[33]
In March 1964, Proxmire charged that political concerns, not national defense needs, were keeping too many naval shipyards open, which resulted in a waste of federal funds: “On the basis of every statistical study, both by the Navy and independent groups, private shipyards can build, repair or modernize five ships for the same number of dollars needed to turn out four ships in navy shipyards.” Proxmire unsuccessfully favored proposals that awarded contracts to the lowest bidder to save money and close unneeded facilities, and he pointed out that “the advantages of this free enterprise approach” had been recognized by Robert McNamara, the Secretary of Defense and a former corporate chief executive officer.[34]
In March 1969, Proxmire introduced legislation that would have regulated the credit life and disability insurance industries. He declared that Americans were being overcharged $220 million a year.[35]
In October 1979, Proxmire wrote head of the General Accounting Office Elmer B. Staats to request the GAO to investigate claims that the Department of Housing and Urban Development had authorized the P.I. Properties to steal funds from the federal government and low income tenants. The same day, Proxmire delivered a speech on the Senate floor that condemned the failure of the Housing and Urban Development Department to act on recommendation from staff members to terminate funding for the P.I. Properties’ 285-unit project at 14th and Clifton Streets in Washington, DC.
Proxmire writes in his book The Fleecing of America;1980, p. 218:
“The General Accounting Office (GAO), is a true and good watchdog over federal spending. It is headed by the Comptroller General, who is appointed for a single fifteen-year term. His independence is reinforced by a retirement program similar to that of a Supreme Court Justice. He retires at full salary for life.
The GAO has 535 “bosses” – being exclusively responsible to Congress only. That makes the accountability so wide-spread that the GAO’s independence is indisputably genuine.
The GAO has the expertise to command respect by means of four thousand professionals, located throughout the world: auditors, accountants, lawyers, investigators, and analysts of remarkably high quality.
In the numerous investigations they have made for me, I cannot recall a single instance where they have been proved wrong on the facts. Their reports are models of clarity and brevity.
The GAO saves you money in various ways. It has, for instance, helped the Office of Education collect some of the $287 million it had to pay to lending institutions because one of every six college students (through September 1976) had defaulted on his or her tuition loan. The GAO recommended that bill collectors be hired and the names of delinquent students be filed with credit bureaus. The latter had remarkably quick results!
As another example, the GAO disclosed the waste to the government [taxpayer] caused by the failure of officials traveling on federal money to follow the law requiring them to use the widely available discount airline fares. The GAO estimated that at least $470 million is spent unnecessarily in that fashion. They also found that federal agencies keep no records of discounts not taken and do not monitor travel expenditures to make sure the discounts are used.
The failure to use the GAO fare more extensively that it does is a “regrettable weakness” of the Congress [an understatement of epochal proportions!]. Every committee that spends the public money should make sure that the agency it is funding is spending the money according to the law and that every allegation of Fraud and Waste is investigated.
The GAO has been quietly but firmly pushing federal agencies to measure and to improve productivity. In this way it has already helped the taxpayer get his money’s worth, and this with little encouragement and almost no recognition by Congress.
A congressional committee that does not make constant and aggressive use of the GAO reminds one of a high school football coach with a 220-poung fullback who can run the hundred in less than ten flat and run over and through opponents all day but never gets in the game because the coach can’t remember his name.
Creating agencies to save money may be a great idea. But we should start by using the ones we have.”
See also:
– Brooksley Born – American Joan of Arc this site dated 2020/07/02
– The 2008 Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission report dated 2011
– Catherine Austin-Fitts’ Michigan State University report co-authored by Mark Skidmore claiming $21 trillion in “unauthorized spending” by the U.S. DOD using U.S. Department of HUD overcharging low income property owners as a fundraising mechanism using Ginnie Mae investments.
“Government isn’t the solution to our problems. Government IS the problem!” – Ronald Reagan
