COMMENTERRY—

A barrel of political pork!

According to Citizens Against Government Waste our congress critters last year spent 17.2 billion dollars on their annual barrel of “pork” in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2007 MSNBC News, among many others, recently reported.

The “pork” projects tallied by the watchdog group had to: 1) Serve only a local interest, 2) Were not requested by an executive branch department, and 3) were not the subject of any congressional hearings—which means simply, the money for them was handed out without public scrutiny.

Regarding the three leading presidential candidates, Slick Willie Clinton’s consort led that group hands-down with her own stash of $296 million bucks in government tax dollar give-aways. Her rival Obama crossed the line with a paltry $97 million by comparison.

Across the political aisle, Senator McCain was guilty of squandering absolutely zero dollars in this annual raid on the public treasury.

The folks at Wikipedia describe this practice thusly: “Pork barrel politics refers to government spending that is intended to benefit constituents of a politician in return for their political support, either in the form of campaign contributions or votes.”

Regarding such political largess, one crusty old politico once remarked, “A billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you are talking about real money”. Some folks my age will remember that gravelly-voiced US Senator named Dirksen.

Of course, another tragedy here is American voters absolutely love it when their congress critter dumps a barrel of vote purchasing money in their own back yard, but, regard it as disgusting waste when it happens in some other precinct.

Lordy, aren’t I past the age where I should even be pondering political felonies like this.