PORK UPDATE: Rhode Island blogger Carroll Andrew Morse points out some highway pork in his home state that could be cut. I hope other bloggers will follow his lead. [LATER: Followup on Rhode Island here.]
UPDATE: More pork found in Iowa. And not the yummy, soon-to-be-bacon kind.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s some Utah fat!
(Sounds like Utah could do without it: “Surplus stack of state cash keeps growing.”)
MORE: Some Massachusetts pork.
The obvious next step is for local bloggers to call their Senators/Representative on Monday and ask if they’ll vote to cut this (or, failing that, can identify other cuts they will support) — then to post the response on their blog. I suspect that members of Congress will pay at least some attention to requests from local bloggers.
MORE STILL: Here’s the 2006 budget page from OMB. If you know of some other good resources, email ’em to me.
And — how could I have forgotten it — Nathan Lanier points out the Pig Book.
STILL MORE: Here’s some North Carolina pork — though at least it hasn’t been soaked in that vinegary stuff they call barbecue sauce.
And reader Jay Stannard emails:
Here’s some easy pork that we could cut:
$1.2 B to refurbish the UN building.
Trump says it can be done for $600M, so that’s $600M to the UN kleptocrats.
Sorry Kofi, the rest of the world will have to pony up the cash, we have better things to do with it.
Here’s an article on the U.N. Headquarters boondoggle, which is being financed (via a 30-year low interest loan of $1.2 billion) from the U.S. government.
Arizona pork, from Edward Boyd!
How easy is it? This easy!
EVEN MORE: A reader who requests anonymity because of his current position emails:
Every September, Federal bureaucrats go on a spending spree with “year-end funds” — the money left over from the fiscal year that ends September 30.
Perhaps Congress should use this opportune moment to requisition the unspent money in padded program budgets and redirect it to Katrina rebuilding.
It could pay for the whole thing — that’s how much we’re talking about here.
Go for it, Congress.
AND YET MORE: In My home county in Tennessee, here’s $28 million in mostly-local road money. Is it pork? My congressman pretty much admits that:
Duncan and Alexander secured federal funding for Foothills Parkway, a civic arts center at Maryville College, Great Smoky Mountain Heritage Center at Townsend, and a greenway pedestrian bridge across the U.S. 129 By-pass in Alcoa.
In federal funding, there have always been bills which the members of Congress use for what are commonly referred to as “pork barrel” projects by those not receiving the benefits. Currently, the transportation bill has provided funds for many local projects across the nation that meet the proper definitions within the bill.
In the days of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, such projects were financed through numerous other types of aid or work programs. Resentment locally was so high to that type of funding at the time that some local governments in Blount County refused to apply for the funds.
Whether we like the method used or not, it is the only way we have of getting back our fair share of the federal taxes we pay.
Couldn’t we just, you know, keep the money without laundering it through Congress?
Some of the National Park road money may not count as “pork,” but the Civic Arts Center and pedestrian bridge definitely do.