PORK  BARREL  SPENDING

                    RECENT  EXAMPLES  BY  OUR  CONGRESS

     The term "pork barrel" stems back to the early 1800s when the popular
meat was packed that way, and hungry farm hands reached in for slabs of
salt pork.  In 1879, it was adopted as political slang to mean goodies for
the local district paid for by the taxpayers at large.

     Here are some recent examples of pork barrel spending by the Congress
of the United States.  These examples will be divided into 3 groups: the
absurd, federal spending for private concerns, and pork for Congress
itself.


THE  ABSURD:

þ    $107,000 to study the sex life of the Japanese quail.

þ    $1.2 million to study the breeding habits of the woodchuck.

þ    $150,000 to study the Hatfield-McCoy feud.

þ    $84,000 to find out why people fall in love.

þ    $1 million to study why people don't ride bikes to work.

þ    $19 million to examine gas emissions from cow flatulence.

þ    $144,000 to see if pigeons follow human economic laws.

þ    Funds to study the cause of rudeness on tennis courts and examine
     smiling patterns in bowling alleys.

þ    $219,000 to teach college students how to watch television.

þ    $2 million to construct an ancient Hawaiian canoe.

þ    $20 million for a demonstration project to build wooden bridges.

þ    $160,000 to study if you can hex an opponent by drawing an X on his
     chest.

þ    $800,000 for a restroom on Mt. McKinley.

þ    $100,000 to study how to avoid falling spacecraft.

þ    $16,000 to study the operation of the komungo, a Korean stringed
     instrument.

þ    $1 million to preserve a sewer in Trenton, NJ, as a historic
     monument.

þ    $6,000 for a document on Worcestershire sauce.

þ    $10,000 to study the effect of naval communications on a bull's
     potency.


þ    $100,000 to research soybean-based ink.

þ    $1 million for a Seafood Consumer Center.

þ    $57,000 spent by the Executive Branch for gold-embossed playing cards
     on Air Force Two.



Federal spending for PRIVATE concerns:

þ    $3.1 million to convert a ferry boat into a crab restaurant in
     Baltimore.

þ    $6.4 million for a Bavarian ski resort in Kellogg, Idaho.

þ    $13 million to repair a privately owned dam in South Carolina.

þ    $4.3 million for a privately owned museum in Johnstown,
     Pennsylvania.

þ    $11 million for a private pleasure boat harbor in Cleveland.

þ    $6 million to repair tracks owned by the Soo Railroad Line.

þ    $320,000 to purchase President McKinley's mother-in-law's house.

þ    Funds to rehabilitate the South Carolina mansion of Charles
     Pickney, a Framer of the Constitution, even though the house was built
     after he died.

þ    $2.7 million for a catfish farm in Arkansas.

þ    $3 million for private parking garages in Chicago.

þ    $500,000 to build a replica of the Great Pyramid of Egypt in
     Indiana.

þ    $850,000 for a bicycle path in Macomb County, Michigan.

þ    $10 million for an access ramp in a privately owned stadium in
     Milwaukee.

þ    $1.8 million for an engineering study to convert Biscayne Boulevard in
     Miami into an "Exotic Garden."

þ    $13 million for an industrial theme park in Pennsylvania.

þ    $500,000 for a museum to honor former Secretary of State Cordell Hull.

þ    $33 million to pump sand onto the private beaches of Miami  hotels.









Pork for Congress itself:

þ    $6 million to upgrade the two-block long Senate subway.

þ    $350,000 to renovate the House Beauty Salon.

þ    $250,000 to study TV lighting in the Senate meeting rooms.

þ    $130,000 for a Congressional video-conferencing project.




CATEGORY  SUB-TOTALS:

1.   Absurd      $ 45,980,000
2.   Private     $109,470,000
3.   Congress    $  6,730,000

GRAND  TOTAL:  $162,180,000        



These figures have been extracted from the book: "THE GOVERNMENT RACKET:
Washington Waste From A to Z", by Martin L. Gross, July 1992, and arranged
into categories by Chris Albritton.


WHAT  CAN  YOU  DO  ABOUT  PORK  BARREL  SPENDING ?

1.   Send this file to as many electronic bulletin boards as possible.

2.   Distribute this on paper where you work, and pass it out to friends
     and relatives.

3.   Write some letters:

     A.   Complain to your U.S. Senators and Representatives that there is
          too much pork in Congressional appropriations bills.

     B.   Urge your U.S. Senators and Representatives to pass the Line Item
          Veto so that the President can cross out the pork in an otherwise
          good appropriation bill.  Forty three states give their governors
          the Line Item Veto.  Why shouldn't our President have it also?

     C.   Insist on a Congressional rule that no member of a committee can
          put pork into a bill that benefits his constituency. 

     D.   Send electronic mail directly to the President and Vice-President

               þ    PRESIDENT@WHITEHOUSE.GOV
               þ    VICE.PRESIDENT@WHITEHOUSE.GOV

 EXAMPLES  BY  OUR  CONGRESS

     The term "po