One politician's pork...

Posted at 11:54 AM on April 21, 2006 by Bob Collins

I got a press release today from the National Taxpayers Union, offering up a spokesman for an interview on how Congress is loading up the spending bill for continuing operations in Iraq and hurricane Katrina Relief with "pork." I don't have anything to do with what MPR News covers so I ignored the guest and started looking at the alleged problem instead.

First, Congress makes it virtually impossible for the average person to find these bills and I'm not all that convinced it's an accident. But with a little digging around you can find some of these things.

I found Washingtonwatch.com to be somewhat helpful even though I have no clue whether HR4939 is the one the Taxpayers Union is shouting about, and they make a major mistake when they don't include the bill number in their calls to arms.

However, Washingtonwatch.com says HR 4939 is "H.R. 4939 makes emergency supplemental appropriations for the Defense Department, the global war on terror, and hurricane recovery." So I think that's the one.

They say it costs the average family $360.23.

I read the subject headings of what was in the bill, and came away completely unable to figure out what was what. Again, probably as designed. I was looking for the "bridge to nowhere" type of project that usually ends up in stump speeches.

However a conservative Web site, Human Events Online, has a list of pork.

What caught me was this one:

$4 billion for farm bailouts, which comes on top of the $25 billion that will be spent this year on farm subsidies, even as farm income reaches near-record highs;

... because I haven't heard a candidate for statewide office in Minnesota yet add farm subsidies when they rattle off the list of pork spending.

I also noted this one:

$594 million for highway projects unrelated to the Gulf Coast—some as far away as Hawaii;

.. and I'm dying to know how a mere mortal like me can find the list of projects to see if there's a Minnesota road on there. Because when it comes to "bringing home the bacon," man, do we ever love road projects.

If I were elected to the House or Senate, I think I'd have a two-year/four-year migraine trying to figure this stuff out.

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