Pork - Time To Belly Up To The Public Trough

MayorBob.

Posted to Politics on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 07:53:59 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

They really ought to add one more thing to those two certainties in life (death and taxes) - Congressional pork.  Because, here it is 2008, the second session of the 110th Congress, and Congressmen and Senators are still inserting self-serving items into the federal budget.  Back when budget earmarks were only costing the US taxpayer millions rather than billions of dollars, the projects were quietly slipped into the budget and funded.  

Constituents of the sponsoring politician rejoiced at this appropriate form of constituent services.  But as the money became larger and larger and the sponsoring politicians less and less ashamed of taking credit for raiding the treasury, the media began to take notice.  One of the places the media turn to for information on who's got whose hand in whose pocket is a document called the "Pig Book."

The Pig Book has been produced by the Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) since 1991.  And what growth pork has shown over the past 17 years.  Back in 1991, the book listed 546 projects which cost the taxpayer (US)$3.1 billion.  This year's book lists over 11,000 projects with a total price tag of $17.2 billion.

If you thought the embarrassment and furor in 2005 over US Representative Don Young's (R - AK) earmark for a $220 million "bridge to nowhere" was enough to dull the craving for pork, you'd be wrong on two counts.  Firstly, the 2007 book listed a mere 2,658 earmarks with a total cost of $13.2 billion.  Secondly, Senator Ted Stevens (R - AK), the bridge's main defender, still toils tirelessly to secure close to half a billion dollars (pdf doc) worth of earmarks for Alaskans.  The current King of Pork in Congress is Senator Thad Cochran (R - MS) who sponsored 245 projects worth $892 million.  His interests range from shrimp to beavers and onto defense projects.  Cochran, a self-styled fiscal conservative, said he rejects CAGW's position that "any and all federal spending not specifically requested by the Executive Branch is wasteful and irresponsible."  He stoically views his pork as constitutional responsibilities.

But, with billions on the table there's money aplenty to fund even more dubious undertakings like olive fruit fly research, the Lobster Institute, and the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service.  Among the three presidential hopefuls still in the race, Senator John McCain (R - AZ) swore off pork years ago.  Senators Barack Obama (D - IL) and Hillary Clinton (D - NY) have been seen lurking around the pork trough in the past.  Obama has 53 projects worth $97 million in the 2008 book while Clinton sponsored 281worth $296 million.  Call it an epiphany or a political ploy, but both Democrats said they're leaving pork behind -- at least for 2009.