Your tax dollars at work

Whoever thinks a Congressman’s job is easy has never seen them fighting to get to their share of pork from the public trough. While everything listed in the Citizens Against Government Waste’s “2006 Pig Book Summary” may not actually be pork, a lot of it is (they do list their criteria to be included). Here are a few of my favorites:

$2,100,000 for the viticulture consortium in California, New York, and Pennsylvania. According to USDA testimony, “The original goal of this research was to maintain or enhance the competitiveness of the United States viticulture and wine industry in the global market.” (I can summarize it for you: pick, ferment, bottle, repeat. I'll take my $2.1MM in small, unmarked bills please.)

$13,500,000 added by the House for the International Fund for Ireland (IFI), which has released a five-year strategy focusing on grassroots reconciliation and cross-community projects such as: the construction of Creggan Community Café and Catering Ltd., the Newcastle YMCA, the Donegal Town Waterbus, the Leitrim Food Center of Excellence, the Chef Development Program, and funding toward the World Toilet Summit. Could there be a better example of the government flushing away your money? (Wow, where can I get tickets for that? I would hate to miss that craptacular event.)

$3,400,000 for the Wao Kele o Puna rain forest. In a letter to legislators, the president of Malama O Puna, a Hawaii nonprofit environmental group, urged that federal money be spent on the project: “On behalf of all our members, the birds who cannot speak for themselves, and generations yet to come, I thank you for your staunch support." (Tell them if the birds will quit messing up my car, I’ll take that as proof of their thanks.)

$500,000 for construction of the Sparta Teapot Museum in Sparta, North Carolina. (Uhhhh...yeah)

Read through the $29 billion dollar list and try to keep a straight face the next time one of the Congressmen listed talks about the need for more taxes.