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For all the very justified moaning/whining about tangible, high-profile pork (like bridges to nowhere & such), bacon is a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the federal budget. There are greater structural issues at play here. Entitlements & such like Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid. Seriously pork is not good & maybe bad, But some people need to understand proportion & scale. The transportation bill, which covers 5 years, has 24 billion in earmarks. At least one in every congressional district (except one, Rep Flakes district in Arizona). So 24 divided by 5, that’s under 5 billion a year in earmarks over the next five years. That’s under 100 million per state per year. Is that HUGE?!?!. And it is admirable that some citizens are willing to give up their 8 million dollar parking garages & 50 million dollar bridges & 3 million dollar bike trails, but the overall sum of transportation pork is hardly anything in the big picture. And certainly not nearly enough to even make a dent in the Katrina efforts. Sooooooooo, no borrowing then? Well, as Delay said "My answer to those that want to offset the spending is sure, bring me the offsets, I'll be glad to do it. But nobody has been able to come up with any yet," the Texas Republican told reporters at his weekly briefing. http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050914-120153-3878r.htm BTW, these "special projects" do their part to keep the constituency natives happy. YUP, someone is fighting for them too! next, the Energy Bill, a 12.3 billion dollars OVER TEN YEARS. ?

All the so-called "pork" is just a symptom of a far larger problem (but should be cut out just the same). The larger problem is a Federal Government that has grown so far out of it's legal and constitutional boundaries. How many entitlement programs are found in the Constitution?

Then again - what part of the Constitution authorizes a payroll tax of it's citizens (without having to manufacture an additional amendment)? The founding father's found a way to fund the constitutional costs of the Federal Government without such a direct tax. They did not envision the nanny-state that we have now.