WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today announced the nominees for its 2017 Porker of the Year. People may cast their ballots for the candidate they think was the most reprehensible Porker in 2017 in an online poll at cagw.org/porkeroftheyear. The six finalists were chosen by CAGW staff from among 11 worthy Porkers of the Month from this year. The voting deadline is December 31, 2017 and the results will be announced on January 3, 2018. The candidates are:

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was named February 2017 Porker of the Month for her long history of misinformation, hyperbole, and false statements about Obamacare; from “We have to pass the bill to find out what is in it,” to saying that Obamacare, “has succeeded in every way.”

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) was named March 2017 Porker of the Month for his outlandish defense of the bureaucratic takeover of the internet by subjecting it to a depression-era regulatory regime that was originally meant for rotary-dialed telephones.

Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) was named May 2017 Porker of the Month for his senseless push to revive earmarks, which is one of the most wasteful and corrupt practices in the history of Congress. Since 1991, CAGW’s Congressional Pig Book has exposed 110,605 earmarks costing taxpayers $329.9 billion.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was named June 2017 Porker of the Month for his quarter-century-long quest to impose a single-payer healthcare system on the United States, which would put the federal government in control of every aspect of a citizens’ healthcare.

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) was named August 2017 Porker of the Month for his attempt to fund the “road to nowhere,” connecting two remote Alaska towns with populations under 1,000.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) was named October 2017 Porker of the Month for spreading blatant falsehoods about tax reform legislation that would simplify the system and allow Americans to keep more of their own money.

CAGW is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. Porker of the Month and Porker of the Year are dubious honors given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.