If the govt did not waste so much money could they actualy fund the important stuff?

Pork Barrel Spending - The Absurd





$107,000 to study the sex life of the Japanese quail.

$1.2 million to study the breeding habits of the woodchuck.

$150,000 to study the Hatfield-McCoy feud.

$84,000 to find out why people fall in love.

$1 million to study why people don't ride bikes to work.

$19 million to examine gas emissions from cow flatulence.

$144,000 to see if pigeons follow human economic laws.

Funds to study the cause of rudeness on tennis courts and examine smiling patterns in bowling alleys.

$219,000 to teach college students how to watch television.

$2 million to construct an ancient Hawaiian canoe.

$20 million for a demonstration project to build wooden bridges.

$160,000 to study if you can hex an opponent by drawing an X on his chest.

$800,000 for a restroom on Mt. McKinley.

$100,000 to study how to avoid falling spacecraft.

$16,000 to study the operation of the komungo, a Korean stringed instrument.

$1 million to preserve a sewer in Trenton, NJ, as a historic monument.

$6,000 for a document on Worcestershire sauce.

$10,000 to study the effect of naval communications on a bull's potency.

$100,000 to research soybean-based ink.

$1 million for a Seafood Consumer Center.

$57,000 spent by the Executive Branch for gold-embossed playing cards on Air Force Two.

Total: $ 45,980,000

http://www.areddy.net/mscott/porkabs.htm鈥?/a>



Pork Barrell Spending - Private Concerns





$3.1 million to convert a ferry boat into a crab restaurant in Baltimore.

$6.4 million for a Bavarian ski resort in Kellogg, Idaho.

$13 million to repair a privately owned dam in South Carolina.

$4.3 million for a privately owned museum in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

$11 million for a private pleasure boat harbor in Cleveland.

$6 million to repair tracks owned by the Soo Railroad Line.

$320,000 to purchase President McKinley's mother-in-law's house. Funds to rehabilitate the South Carolina mansion of Charles Pickney, a Framer of the Constitution, even though the house was built after he died.

$2.7 million for a catfish farm in Arkansas.

$3 million for private parking garages in Chicago.

$500,000 to build a replica of the Great Pyramid of Egypt in Indiana.

$850,000 for a bicycle path in Macomb County, Michigan.

$10 million for an access ramp in a privately owned stadium in Milwaukee.

$1.8 million for an engineering study to convert Biscayne Boulevard in Miami into an "Exotic Garden."

$13 million for an industrial theme park in Pennsylvania.

$500,000 for a museum to honor former Secretary of State Cordell Hull.

$33 million to pump sand onto the private beaches of Miami hotels.

Total: $109,470,000



http://www.areddy.net/mscott/porkpri.htm鈥?/a>



Pork Barrell Spending - Private Concerns





$6 million to upgrade the two-block long Senate subway.

$350,000 to renovate the House Beauty Salon.

$250,000 to study TV lighting in the Senate meeting rooms.

$130,000 for a Congressional video-conferencing project.

Total: $6,730,000



http://www.areddy.net/mscott/porkcon.htm鈥?/a>



This is the stimulus bill and the one after that passed in March info



http://www.cagw.org/site/DocServer/Pig_B鈥?/a>



Imagine the funding for schools, the military, roads and infrastructure, medicare, medicaid, prescription drug plan, social programs,,,This is exactly why the govt should never get control of health care.If the govt did not waste so much money could they actualy fund the important stuff?
Um a lot of those sound pretty important. SInce 18% of greenhouse gases are produced from animal flatulence, I consider that money well spent. As a biologist, I believe I speak for most Americans when I say 1.2 million to study the breeding habits of woodchucks is a bargain. Wow %26lt;$200 million....That's a lot we could have bought less than 2/3 of an F22!!!!!!
The problem is they could never agree on what is important.If the govt did not waste so much money could they actualy fund the important stuff?
Oh well that's because of the Catch 22 that is our government...Legislators will pass a bill only if it benefits them, which manifests itself as these earmarks in legislation. In order to get the voters to pass a bill that gives 2 billion dollars to schools, the drafters must metaphorically "bribe" legislators into passing the bill.



Capitol Hill is so muffed up that earmarks and legislation have been fused. Let me know when greed stops being a part of human nature, and I'll let you know when this crap will finally end.