Rep. David Obey says that there's not time to look at the 36,000 earmark requests in the House.Gah! If you don't have time to read them and give them some thought, then why are you moving forward with them at all? Why are you spending money if you don't know what you're spending it on? Sometimes the proper thing to do is nothing.
Not that I think Porkbusters is necessarily the answer. Hey, lets get a bunch of libertarians together to decide what the government really needs to spend money on. Department of Education? Pork. Department of Defense? Just bring back the militia system! Department of Justice? Non-governmental arbitration is much more efficient anyway... Federal Reserve? Laissez-Faire!
I remember looking at the list of "pork" they compiled from the 2005 Transportation Bill. The Delaware list included biking trails and some other projects of admittedly questionable worth. But most of the money was for major highway projects like reworking the I-95 & Rt. 1 interchange by the Christiana Mall. Ever tried going through that area on a Sunday afternoon during the summer? You could walk home faster. We're talking about an interchange on an interstate highway that sees huge amounts of interstate vehicle traffic from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. How was this pork?
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