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"Pork Barrel" Spending in Washington Wastes Tax Dollars.

The people of the United States elect politicians to office to act and vote in the best interests of the country. They should not elect politicians to office to use the National Treasury and our tax dollars in order to get themselves reelected by "bringing home the bacon" for their district or state. Programs using tax dollars need to be evaluated on the merits of the project not hidden as an earmark in a piece of legislation designed to by pass scrutiny for their voters back home.

Pork barrel spending has been rampant in recent years as the Congress has created a process with a total lack of transparency to circumvent spending due process review. Much of this "Pork" spending would not stand up under any type of coherent review . As the Republican Congress has failed to restrain spending, and President Bush has refused to veto any spending bill, "Pork barrel "spending has increased every year from 1991 through 2006.

So what defines "Pork Barrel" spending?
The non profit, non-partisan group, "Citizens against Government Waste" has a definition that uses common sense as follows:

Requested by one Chamber of Congress
Not specifically authorized
Not competitively awarded
Not requested by the President
Greatly exceeds President's budget request or prior year funding
Not subject to Congressional hearings.
Serves only a local or special interest.

Using this definition, "Citizens against Government Waste" identified 2658 projects in 2007 at a cost to the taxpayer of 13.2 billion in the Defense and Homeland Security Appropriations actions. Since 1991, "Pork" identified under the above definition has totaled 252 Billion dollars with Alaska and Hawaii being the biggest per capita beneficiaries.

This "Pork Barrel" spending in Washington comes at a time when the Federal budget is in deep deficit. The attitude in Washington D.C. is that there is a virtually unlimited supply of tax-payer dollars to spend . Of course, when the budget deficit gets large enough and the dollars begin to dwindle , then the only solution is to raise taxes.

While the Congressional career politicians were spending money on various " Pork projects" to "bring home the bacon" for their home districts and states, laws passed for Education ( No child Left behind ), Border Security and others were not being properly funded and the country was in deficit spending. The obvious conclusion is that political reelection is more important to our career politicians than properly funding Education, Border Security or the massive budget deficit regardless of what their statements are during election campaigns.

Finally, "Pork Barrel "spending in Washington wastes taxpayer dollars that could be used for many other progressive projects or to reduce the budget deficit. During the last several years, the Congressional political hogs have had a feast at the "Pork Barrel". The time has come for voters to demand that politicians of both parties go on a "Pork-Free Diet " for the financial health of the nation overall.

Sources:
Citizens against Government Waste www.cagw.org

Learn more about this author, James Smith.
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