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Get your Mother's Day gifts at the Galleria! Add your comments on this week's "What is the Deal?" column at Uncle Hiram's Bulletin Board. May 4, 2003 What is the deal with Pork? By Jan A. Larson The Citizens Against Government Waste recently released their 2003 "Pig Book" which details the wasteful spending that various members of Congress slip into appropriations bills. The Pig Book documents a total of 9362 projects with a total cost of $22.5 billion for fiscal year 2003. This compares to 8341 projects with a cost of $20.1 billion for fiscal year 2002. Obviously belt tightening never crossed the minds of our representatives in Washington. Projects are selected for inclusion in the Pig Book based on at least one, but often more than one, of seven criteria: - Requested by only one member of Congress. - Not specifically authorized. - Not competitively awarded. - Not requested by the President. - Greatly exceeds the President's budget or the previous year's funding. - Not the subject of congressional hearings. - Serves only a local or special interest. Some of the most egregious examples of pork from the 2003 Pig Book include: - $22 million for Alaska Railroad Rehabilitation. - $20 million for the Tuscaloosa (AL) Eastern Bypass - $16 million to rebuild Seattle pier #36. - $10 million for design, study and condition assessment for House office buildings. - $10 million for Route 9 in Jefferson and Berkeley (WV) counties. - $8 million for statewide buses and bus facilities in Maryland. - $5 million for after school programs for seven school districts in Wisconsin. - $3 million for the Blackstone River Valley bikeway in Rhode Island. - $2.75 million for the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine. - $2.7 million for a campus community education center at Glenville (WV) State College. - $2.5 million for the Mississippi Workforce Training Program. - $2 million for the Iowa Communications Network. - $1.19 million divided among the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. - $1 million for the Galena (AK) School District. - $1 million for a DNA study of bears. A sarcastic hats off to the congressional delegation from Alaska. They managed to bring back $610 per capita in pork for the citizens of their state. Boos and hisses to the North Carolina delegation for swinging a measly $9.81 in pork for each citizen of the Tar Heel state. Unlike the states, which must operate with balanced budgets and are, in times of budget shortfalls, forced to examine all state spending, the Federal government can (and does) spend, spend, spend with no regard as to whether the money is available or not. There are no checks and balances on the expenditures of the Federal government and, in fact, the system in place actually encourages wasteful spending. The citizens of Alaska are quite likely pleased that their delegation in Washington put $610 worth of pork on their tables and when election time rolls around, that delegation will likely be sent back to the Nation's Capital to do it again. I'm not so sure the citizens of North Carolina would be quite as thrilled with the Alaskans' good fortune, especially when they realize that they paid for it. There is only one thing for the North Carolina delegation to do - get more pork! If the North Carolinians got together with the Alaskans and agreed to support each other's pet projects, they would both benefit! Who cares how much it costs? The Texans, New Yorkers and Floridians will pay for it. There is no reason why the citizens of Alabama should have to pay for a bikeway in Rhode Island just as Rhode Islanders should not be paying for a highway bypass in Alabama. All of these projects should be funded on the state level and the Federal government should stick to funding only those projects and facilities that serve a national interest, not local special interests. The Cowgirl Hall of Fame, for example, may be a worthwhile institution, but it certainly serves no compelling national interest and it should be supported locally, not by the taxpayers. Does studying bear DNA serve a national interest? How about that bikeway in Rhode Island? At a recent Senate hearing for the purposes of authorizing spending for the war in Iraq, West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, the King of Pork, grilled Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld, stating (paraphrasing) that the American people deserve to know that their money is being spent responsibly. Nothing makes my blood boil more than a Senator or Congressman talking about fiscal responsibility or how we can't afford tax cuts when there is so much of our tax money being wasted on ludicrous pet projects and special interests. Some claim that the amounts spent on these projects comprise a miniscule percentage of the Federal budget. I would remind them of the famous quote by the late Senator Everett Dirksen, "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money." Don't believe the Washington insiders when they claim budgetary poverty. There is a lot of wasteful spending that can be eliminated. In these times of belt tightening for states, businesses and households, it is time for fiscal responsibility in Washington. If not now, when? -- Send feedback to the author. The "What is the Deal?" column will appears weekly on the Pie of Knowledge website. Guest submissions are welcome and encouraged. To submit an article to "What is the Deal?" click here. To subscribe to the "What is the Deal?" mailing list and receive early notification when a new column is available, click here. The Pie of Knowledge will never, ever divulge email addresses to any third party for any reason unless so ordered by a court of law. Contributions to the Pie of Knowledge are greatly appreciated. 
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