A Penny Saved...Is a Penny Spent on a Pet Project!

One of the most disturbing trends in American politics is that of "pork-barrel" spending. For the uninitiated, that is anytime that money for special projects is attached to a bill that has no connection to that money. These are listed under the politically impotent word of "earmarks", but they are really just spending gone wild. Here's just a brief list of things your money has been spent on but was never debated in the Congress:

$107,000 to study the sex life of the Japanese quail.
$1.2 million to study the breeding habits of the woodchuck.
$150,000 to study the Hatfield-McCoy feud.
$84,000 to find out why people fall in love.
$1 million to study why people don't ride bikes to work.
$19 million to examine gas emissions from cow flatulence.
$144,000 to see if pigeons follow human economic laws.
Funds to study the cause of rudeness on tennis courts and examine smiling patterns in bowling alleys.
$219,000 to teach college students how to watch television.
$2 million to construct an ancient Hawaiian canoe.
$20 million for a demonstration project to build wooden bridges.
$160,000 to study if you can hex an opponent by drawing an X on his chest.
$800,000 for a restroom on Mt. McKinley.
$100,000 to study how to avoid falling spacecraft.
$16,000 to study the operation of the komungo, a Korean stringed instrument.
$1 million to preserve a sewer in Trenton, NJ, as a historic monument.
$6,000 for a document on Worcestershire sauce.
$10,000 to study the effect of naval communications on a bull's potency.
$100,000 to research soybean-based ink.
$1 million for a Seafood Consumer Center.
$57,000 spent by the Executive Branch for gold-embossed playing cards on Air Force Two. Total: $ 45,980,000

While none of these seems overly dangerous at first, the total at the bottom tells the story. If we continue to spend money on projects like this, then why are we crowing about the cost of government? Instead, how about we eliminate this process and operate like the State of Maryland (I shudder to have just typed that sentence, but I actually did...) where there is debate on every funding project approved. All State Senators and Delegates have to write bills calling for: "The creation of a state debt," or for us common folk, the right for the state to spend money. Consequently, when this is done, a citizen knows what there money has been spent on. They don't have to read through lengthy portions of bills and so forth. Also, it allows politicians to give something an up-or-down vote, which is the basis of democracy.

This policy of pork spending is a national disgrace and one that I think will lead to a national calamity in this country. As our spending continues to increase, despite the best efforts of most intelligent people, the amounts of pork will only continue to grow. The government can't just keep printing money and eventually we will pay for the sins of those before us!