Pork-barrel spending in Congress plummets

[DeadCanDance]

Less pork-barrel spending by Congress this year

Waste-watchers applaud a big drop in earmarks, citing a moratorium on Capitol Hill.

The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON - It's been a lean winter on Capitol Hill. A moratorium on the insertion of pork-barrel projects into spending bills – declared by the new Congress – has slashed the amount of money for such earmarks by more than half.

That's the assessment of Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), which has been crunching the numbers on congressional pork each year since 1991. Its annual "Congressional Pig Book," released this week, reports $13.2 billion in pork-barrel spending for the current fiscal year, down from $29 billion in 2006.

The plunge in the number of lawmakers' pet projects is more marked. Congress approved 2,658 pork projects for this year, down from a record 13,997 in fiscal 2005.

snip

The next test of lawmakers' restraint is the fiscal 2008 budget cycle, say pork-bashers, and the weeks ahead are crunch time for new earmark requests.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0309/p02s01-uspo.html

 

[ReillyT]

This appears to be good news. Apparently the new Congress is actually backing up some of its talk. Well done.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

This appears to be good news. Apparently the new Congress is actually backing up some of its talk. Well done.

Actually with the rules changes we wont know untill the bills are passed if there is pork or not. And who changed those rules?

 

[JeffWartman]

This appears to be good news. Apparently the new Congress is actually backing up some of its talk. Well done.

It's not so much Democrats wanting to reduce pork (which they don't) and more about the divided government between the legislative branch and executive branch causing relative legislative gridlock.

This is what happens when one party controls Congress and the other the Presidency, oftentimes. Trust me, if the Democrats controlled the White House along with Congress, spending would be through the roof.