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Say NO to Pork

34 I'm not talking about bacon. I love bacon. And ham. And sausage.

I'm talking about the government-spending type. As in sneaking all kinds of wasteful spending into bills they having nothing to do with.

There's a great organization that keeps an eye on this. They call themselves Citizens Against Government Waste. They're doing us a favor.

Each year they release The Pig Book. It's a very detailed account of what our taxpayer money is spent on, mostly without our knowledge.

In order for an item to make it into the Pig Book, it must satisfy at least two criteria:

Requested by only one chamber of Congress
Not specifically authorized
Not competitively awarded
Not requested by the President
Greatly exceeds the President's budget request or the previous year's funding
Not the subject of congressional hearings
Serves only a local or special interest

So basically these things are local projects and don't need any approval from anyone special to pass.

Here are a few examples:

$1.7 million by Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) for swine odor and manure management research

$800,000 for oyster rehab at the University of South Alabama

$951,000 for energy efficient lighting for downtown Detroit

$41 million for three Presidential libraries (don't you wish your local library had that much funding?)

We're also funding a tea-pot museum as well as teaching chinese prostitutes how to drink responsibly on the job.

I'm serious.

See why it's important to know what's happening in Washington? This is YOUR money. Every April 15, the IRS collects for these and tons of other unnecessary projects that should be paid for by local taxes (or maybe not paid for at all).

You can keep up with this by letting CAGW send you email alerts. When you see something fishy (or pork-ish), contact your elected officials and tell them to say NO to pork!

Labels: America

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