One of the greatest tragedies of the way Washington does business is the way they allocate and spend our money. You notice I said “the way they spend’, not “how much they spend”. I fully believe our country would not be going bankrupt if our leaders would do away with the habit of spending money on every little pet project a Representative or Senator has and spend it on things that are needful.

I receive updates via an RSS feed from Senator Tom Coburn’s office that detail some of the earkmarks and pork barrel spending Washington is in the habit of doing. When you get to reading some of these spending items, it makes you wonder if all of these represenatives have really lost their mind. Here is the latest “Pork Report”.

• Construction spending by federal, state and local governments has reached record levels; Governments are on track to spend a record $300 billion this year on construction click here to read more
• Transportation Secretary says highway money should be spent on transportation projects with the greatest need rather than earmarks, lighthouses or covered bridges click here to read more
• Federal and state funds pay for $1.3 million of an airport’s parking lot renovation click here to read more
• Mississippi officials call for immediate termination of $2 million Congressional earmark click here to read more
• Birthday bash planned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Glacier National Park, but… click here to read more
• With an annual budget of $13 million, Glacier National Park’s maintenance backlog alone could be as much as $400 million, yet… click here to read more
• National Park Service is spending national park funds on local sites in Missouri and Kansas that are not national parks click here to read more
• National Park Service sponsors conference to reflect on the steamboat era on the Missouri River click here to read more
• National Park Service purchasing property to expand national park in Oregon click here to read more
• National Park Service spends $266,000 to develop a tourism strategy for an area of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia click here to read more
• National Park Service drops $1.1 million plan to expand an existing visitor center at Little Bighorn Battlefield, but plans to construct a new $11 million visitor center at the site click here to read more
• National Park Service pays for butterfly gardens and landscaping projects and gardening trails and rock work in Connecticut communities click here to read more
• Construction of virtual-fence projects along Arizona’s border with Mexico has been suspended indefinitely because the Interior Department has not signed off on use of its lands click here to read more

That’s my take!

Larry

Tags: Earmarks, House of Represenatives, Pork Barrel Spending, Pork Report, Senate, Tom Coburn

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 7:28 pm and is filed under News/Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.