pork barrel spending

[wannabehippie]

congress recently passed a budget for fiscal year 2004. some examples of pork in it

$10 million to alaska to promote wild salmon
$560,000 to montana to fight invasive weeds
$250,00 to alaska on dog sled trail improvements
$ 700,000 home ownership classes, SC
$1 million to mississippi for the automated nursery project
$1 million to the alabama asphalt research
$250,000 each to alaska and hawaii to celebrate their centenial statehood (which wont occur till 2009)
$1 million to North dakota to solve their traffic jams (ND has fewer cars per square mile than all but 6 other states)
$7 million to alaksa for "education and cultural exchanges with its historic whaling partner, massachutes. (massachutes isnt getting money in this one)

$1 million to montana to study the DNA of grizzly bears

there are many many more examples of pork spending, over 8000 in total.

but at the same time the federal government nixed spending to NYC for counterterrorism training and equipment for the FDNY and NYPD.

makes you wonder doesnt it


peace
david

[sunny shine]

Hmmmm... maybe Congress is still thinking that Bill Clinton is President.

[j]

HOLY CRAP.... I never knew the Grissly Bear was so important!

[streetsoldier]

david,

You have to KNOW that such legislation is what keeps the home folks happy, and the politician in office...I suppose that if this "pork-barrel" gifting was in environmental research, more efficient alternative-fuel vehicles, tec., you wouldn't have a problem at all with it?

Besides, I CAN speak to the traffic in North Dakota; the largest cities are still running on two-lane roads, and the whole state goes to these cities for ALL their marketing, clothing, etc. Add the voluminous tourist traffic from Canada and points east, this DOES cause major headaches in traffic control. If you lived there, as I did, you'd know...

[wannabehippie]

no environmental protection/research into alternative resources is in general not pork barell because it helps the common good.

an example of poor environmental study

$1.8 million to the Bozeman center, in montana on life in extreme thermal conditions to study the life of algae in hot water

(for such a sparsely populated state montana came out pretty good/pretty bad depending on your point of view, on the large amount of pork spending they got)

more pork spending
Robert Byrd (the king of pork) $150,000 for new office space for himself in the capitol
plus another $1million to his home state to market the work of artisans


but the point of my original post was that all this money is being spent on pork (and if you want to consider alternative fuel research pork, fine)

however congress denied spending on counterterrorism training and equipment.

what happened to homeland security?


peace
david

[wannabehippie]

bump

[coriolis]

Yeah, a million here, a million there, pretty soon you're talkin real money.


Here's a thought though. Money spent by the government for whatever reason creates jobs that create consumption. Consumer spending drives the economy. Whether the jobs are doing construction, useless research, or whatever. What's the difference between spending money to construct some questionable monument, spending it on questionable reasearch, or spending the money on welfare? It all goes to people to live off of! I'd say that welfare is the biggest rat hole of them all.


But back to the original point. Yes I agree, this money would be better spent on homeland security. Give all the people on welfare a job patrolling borders or inspecting container ships. Make em work for it and help our nation too.

[wannabehippie]

snip < Money spent by the government for whatever reason creates jobs >

money spent wisely creates jobs.
somehow i dont think $7 million to alaksa for "education and cultural exchanges with its historic whaling partner will create too many jobs

peace
david