Mar 7, 2007 7:38 pm US/Eastern
'Pig Book' Shows Government Pork Barrel Spending
by Paul Martino
WASHINGTON (KDKA) ―
Around this time every year, a report is put out by a watchdog group called Citizens Against Government Waste to show how your federal tax money is being spent.
KDKA's Paul Martino reports on the latest edition of the Pig Book, which is out today.
The group says this year, 13.2 billion dollars is headed toward hometown projects, and while it's still billions of dollars, this is the lowest amount spent on pork since 1999.
For years, Citizens Against Government Waste have been trying to get the pigs off Capitol Hill, and with the help of reformist lawmakers they may be trimming some of the fat.
"This is the Chinese year of the pig, and fortunately for taxpayers it's a much smaller pig," says Thomas Schatz, of Citizens Against Government Waste.
This year's pork is limited to the Defense and Homeland Security budgets.
That includes $1.1 million to build 20 F-22A fighter jets; however, the problem is the government's accounting offices say the F-22A is out of date and not effective.
About $4 million is going toward a railroad line extension from the North Pole to Delta Junction, Alaska. But Citizens Against Government Waste says that only 1,700 people live in the North Pole, and Delta Junction has a population of just 840 people.
Another $5.5 million is going to the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center. Officials say they want to study the effects of drugs and alcohol on the brain with your tax money. Citizens Against Government Waste says they will serve no pork before its time.
In the state of Washington, a $1.65 million research grant will look for ways to improve the shelf life of vegetables.
And about a million dollars went to a telescope in California to look for extra-terrestrials.
Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, says he has been a long time supporter of Citizens Against Government Waste. He says he believes Republicans didn't lose the last election because of the War in Iraq, but because of pork.
"I think the Republican Party lost the last election because of our failure to control spending, and the earmarking, which led then to corruption, which then led to members of Congress going to jail."
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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