Publius' Forum

Citizens Against Government Waste has released their 2006 investigation of the worst Porkbarrel spending in Congress and it ain't pretty.

From the Summary:

The historic lack of restraint in the appropriations process has helped create a projected $371 billion budget deficit in fiscal 2006 and a national debt of $8.5 trillion.  Whether the lobbying scandal and the outrage of taxpayers over “bridges to nowhere” will force Congress to cut the pork remains to be seen.

The 2006 Congressional Pig Book is the latest installment of Citizens Against Government Waste’s (CAGW) 16-year exposé of pork-barrel spending.  This year’s list includes:  $13,500,000 for the International Fund for Ireland, which helped finance the World Toilet Summit; $6,435,000 for wood utilization research; $1,000,000 for the Waterfree Urinal Conservation Initiative; and $500,000 for the Sparta Teapot Museum in Sparta, N.C.

This year, there was good news and bad news.  For fiscal 2006, appropriators stuffed 9,963 projects into the 11 appropriations bills, a 29 percent decrease over last year’s total of 13,997.  Despite the reduction in the number of earmarks, Congress porked out at record dollar levels with $29 billion in pork for 2006, or 6.2 percent more than last year’s total of $27.3 billion.  In fact, the total cost of pork has increased by 29 percent since fiscal 2003.  Total pork identified by CAGW since 1991 adds up to $241 billion.

Even though Alaska led the nation with $489 per capita ($325 million), it was less than half of Alaska’s 2005 per capita number of $985.  The runners up in 2006 were Hawaii with $378 per capita ($482 million) and the District of Columbia with $182 per capita ($100 million).  Alaska’s drop can be attributed to Sen. Ted Stevens’ (R-Alaska) descent from the throne as Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman.
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Go to the site and see the BILLIONS of waste.

It's sickening.

If the Founders weren't spinning so fast that we are in danger of altering the equatorial constant of this planet already, THIS story would have them oscillating so quickly as to make them transcend dimensional barriers!

-Warner Todd Huston