Oink, Oink! Congress Pigs Out on Pork Barrel Spending

The latest annual Pig Book, which tallies up the total amount of pork-barrel spending by Congress, came out today. The results: Congress added 11,600 special projects called “earmarks” to bills last year, costing the taxpayers $17,200,000,000.

Among the programs documented by the Pig Book’s publishers, Citizens Against Government Waste:

$211,509 for olive fruit fly research to be performed not in the USA, but in Paris, France.

$1,950,000 for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service … sponsored by none other than Charles B. Rangel.

$98,000 for a walking tour of Boydton, Virginia … a town of 474 covering less than one square mile that can all be seen from one spot.

$148,950 for a Sheep Institute in Montana and $188,000 for a Lobster Institute in Maine. What? No Pig Institute in Washington, DC?

$196,000 to renovate the historic post office in Las Vegas … because what better way is there to spend your time in dull, boring Vegas than marvelling at the Post Office?

The pork continues to flow from Congress despite ethics reforms and earmark reforms instituted by the new Democratic majority. Last year was the second porkiest since 1991, when CAGW first published the Pig Book. The total cost of special projects in those 18 years exceeds $271,000,000.

The top three porkers in Congress are three Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee: Thad Cochran, Ted Stevens, and Richard Shelby.

As for the three remaining candidates in the race for the White House, there are no surprises. Hillary Clinton leads the way with 281 earmarks costing $296,200,000. Barack Obama finds himself in the middle with 53 earmarks costing $97,400,000.

And John McCain? Zero earmarks costing $0.00.

Mr. and Ms. American taxpayer, here’s the message from your representatives in Congress: turn around, bend over, and squeal like a pig.

Who says you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s earmark?

Newsprism