No bacon, please....I'm on a diet

I've been on a diet for the last year (have lost 65 pounds since June '04) and one of the first things I cut out of my diet was the four slices of bacon I would get at the cafeteria at work every other morning. I love bacon, but when you're trying to tighten your belt, the fat should be the first thing to go. It works just as well for governments as well as people.

There's been a lot of talk in the last few days about how the American people are going to pay for President Bush's initiatives for Katrina recovery. Naturally, the talk has turned to what can be trimmed from the federal budget (oink), such as the infamous "Bridge To Nowhere" in Alaska. So I started doing a little investigating and I found some interesting statistics at the website for Citizens Against Government Waste (http://www.cagw.org/site/DocServer/Pork_per_capita__2005.pdf?docID=1021) -

• Did you know that the two states with the greatest population, California and Texas, are ranked 50 and 51 on the amount of pork per capita? NOTE - D.C. is included, which is why there are 51 states listed - they've got taxation without representation (voting representation, anyway), but I guess they also get pork without representation. I guess Puerto Rico and Guam don't get any pork or get negligible amounts, since they aren't listed.
• Conversely, the 5 states/districts with the least population rank in the top 15 of pork per capita. They are, in ascending order by population - Wyoming (pop. 506,529, #14 pork per capita), District of Columbia (pop. 553,523, #2), Vermont (pop. 621,394, #10), North Dakota (pop. 634,366, #7), Alaska (pop. 655,435, #1) and South Dakota (pop. 770,883, #6). Also, the 7th least populous state - Montana with a population of 926,865 - ranks #5 on the list (Delaware, the 6th least populous state, comes in at #22).
• Alaska, the #1 state in pork per capita AND in total pork $$, received $645,502,000 or an amazing $984.85 per person. D.C., number two in per capita pork, received less than half that per capita ($464.61 per person). $645 million would go some distance (not a long way, but some) in helping out the Gulf Coast. They want to build bridges? How about rebuilding some of the bridges damaged/destroyed by Katrina?
• And what is it with our 49th and 50th states? They rank #1 (Alaska) and #2 (Hawai'i - per capita rank #3) in total pork dollars. I love Alaska (lived there for 6.5 years, would do almost anything to go back) and I'd love to visit Hawai'i, but I live in Texas. I don't want my tax dollars paying for the "Bridge To Nowhere". What's next? Bridges going from one island to another in Hawai'i?
• By contrast, I'm almost proud of my state. Texas gets a measly $2.90 pork per resident. Not that some of that isn't wasteful (some of it does go to military bases, which isn't necessarily wasteful, depending on how it's used), but it's a lot less than everyone else is getting.

Speaking of Texas, I didn't find anything that comes strictly from my congressional district (although I may have to study the map again to refresh my memory since redistricting), but here are some things that stand out in the Lone Star State -

• Does Lance Armstrong's foundation really need $100,000 in Austin for the "Lance Armstrong Foundation Survivorship Center"?
• There's this thing called the Trinity River Vision in Ft. Worth. Some levees were built for flood control (and we all know how well those work) and now there is a project to "pretty it up" (see their website here). According to their website, the focus of the project is to "addresses issues such as flood protection, the environment, recreation, access to the waterfront, green space, and urban revitalization". Just looking at the intro flash animation when going to their site, this screams "PORK". All I care is that the levees work (see New Orleans). Anything else beyond that right now is just window dressing. If the two Trinity River Vison projects are eliminated, that's $1.225 million in savings (add another $500,000 if you add in the money for general investigations of the Upper Trinity River Basin in the Department of Energy budget).
• Highway constructions/rennovations. When we lived in Kentucky, my mom and I used to joke whenever we went to the Louisville Zoo that I-264 had been under perpetual construction since 1965 - they'd get to one end of the highway, finish, then go back to the beginning and start all over again. Well, in the nearly six years I've been in Texas, I've found a couple of highways like that - I-30 and I-635. From CAGW, we have construction of a bridge on I-30 over the Trinity River (yes, that river again, to the tune of $500,000), $2.45 million for "National Corridor Planning and Border Development Program" for I-635, $500,000 for the I-30 interchange at Collins and Center Streets in Arlington, $8 million for an I-30 replacement bridge somewhere in Dallas, $1 million for the I-30/I-635 interchange in Mesquite, $1.5 million for the I-35E/I-635 interchange in Dallas, another $1.1 million for some bridge on I-30. There's also $8.5 million for something called the NW/SW Extension in Dallas and $2 for the eastern extension of the President George H.W. Bush Tollway. Excuse me? That last is a frickin' tollway! That means you pay for the privilege of driving on it! Why do they need money from Washington to finish the road? Add to all that $3.1 million to the Ft. Worth Transportation Authority ($2.4 million for "fleet modernization" and $700,000 for "passenger shelter replacement") and you have a total of $28, 650,000 in highway pork for DFW.

Technorati tag: porkbusters

PS - Bad Alia for not giving credit where credit is due. Kudos to Instapundit and Truth Laid Bear for organizing/advertising the Porkbusters project. TLB has a page listing the pork projects that bloggers have found so far.