A Taste of Pork

One of the best sampler plates of Congressional pork comes out on April 6. It's the annual Pig Book put together by the folks at Citizens Against Government Waste. In 14 years of riding herd on hoggish spending, CAWG has found plenty of ways Congress used and abused your money:

• $102 million to study screwworms, which were long ago eradicated from American soil
• $50 million for an indoor rain forest in Iowa
• $2.2 million to renovate the North Pole (lucky for Santa!)
• $1 million for ornamental fish research
• $273,000 to combat goth culture in Missouri
• $50,000 for a tattoo-removal program in California
  

Since 1991, the Pig Book has detailed 52,461 pork barrel projects that have cost you $185 billion. Sen John McCain (R-AZ) says the number of pork projects per year has ballooned 886% since 1994 -- from 1,318 to 13,000.

Certainly worth a read. (CAWG)