'Oink Oink'

One of my favorite things every year is seeing the annual Congressional Pig Book published by Citizens Against Government Waste.

Every year they reveal some of the most egregious, pointless, absurd and deplorable uses of taxpayer money. Here are some good ones:

1. $100,000 federal grant given to Tiger Woods' foundation to help build a $25
million education center in Orange County, California.

2. $25,000 for the Clark County School District in Nevada for
curriculum development to study mariachi music.

3. $6.7 million in YMCA funding

4. $100,000 for the Punxsutawney Weather Discovery Center Museum

5. $300,000 for Anaheim Resort Transit (read: Disneyland)
bus and bus facilities in the district of Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif)

Now we could have a healthy discussion on what does or doesn't constitute an appropriate program fit for government spending. These amounts of money are a drop in the bucket for most lawmakers. Appropriations bills estimated in the billions are the norm--so maybe $100,000 isn't much to some of these beltway bandits. But this is serious money to most taxpayers. It is college tuition, mortgage payments, cars. You name it.

It's a travesty that American lawmakers are putting large sums of money into stupid projects like "mariachi" music and the Disneyland bus route.

Shouldn't these programs be left up to the local community to pay for? How exactly will I-- the average taxpayer who lives in one of 50 states--benefit from a bus route in California or a weather museum in Congressman Peterson's district in Pennsylvania?

As the needs of each state reflect the diversity of its inhabitants, are these pork barrel projects only going to get fatter and fatter?