Pass the Pork

This week, I was inspired to write something about John Stossel’s recent ‘Give Me a Break’ story. It was about Congress and all of the pork it doles out. Many of these projects are of concern to local communities, yet many of those projects are funded by the efforts of members of congress in an attempt to gain support from special interests. Looking through www.CAGW.org (Citizens Against Government Waste) you see that Congress has spent:

• $50,000,000 for an indoor rainforest
• $2,000,000 to re-develop the Cincinnati riverfront
• $2,000,000 to build a sugar based ethanol biorefinery
  

When Congress passed the Tsunami relief bill, $25,000,000 went to a fish hatchery in Montana! Think about it, a politician who wants to vote ‘no’ to this provision, must vote ‘no’ to the entire bill. If a sitting politician were to vote ‘no’ to this bill because they object to the needless pork, they run the risk of not showing compassion (something that hurts a re-election campaign), because they must vote ‘no’ for tsunami relief.

All of this pork adds up, $9,698,986,720 in 2005 to be exact.

Not only is this a waste of money, but money is not spent where it is needed. It is spent where a politician stands to gain the most politically.

In 2001, "Scientific American" ran an article predicting that a major hurricane could break the levies and put most of the city 20 feet underwater. As a result, Louisiana asked congress for $27,000,000 to strengthen the levies. They didn’t get it. Congress explained that they did not have the money to undertake such a project. However, they did give Alabama $200,000 for a peanut festival!

With all of this money coming from Washington, libertarians often ask, why are they taking our money, only to give it back to us? It makes more sense for the money to stay here. Right now, Congress takes our money. If a community needs the money back, they have to lobby congress for it back. This process not only adds a layer of bureaucracy, but it costs cities money because cities now must hire professional lobbyists. All of this is needed to convince a congressman from Kentucky to support $18,000 to build a smoking booth at a New Jersey airport.

If the money could have stayed in New Orleans, then they could have maintained the levies with less red-tape. And with lower national taxes, insurance companies may have had been more willing to help out with the project. After all, the insurance companies lost a fortune because those levies broke. But instead, much of our money is controlled by incompetent politicians who think they know what is best for us.

Visit www.CAGW.org. See for yourself where our federal income taxes are being spent.