<br />Posted: November 23, 2004<br />1:00 a.m. Eastern<br />© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com <br /><br />Even though the ruling Republicans' majority leader, Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, claimed the omnibus bill passed in Congress represented "holding the line" on the federal budget, $15.8 billion dollars worth of typical pork-barrel spending is included in the measure. <br /><br />Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog group, says its analysis of the bill, passed on Saturday, includes 11,772 earmarks at a cost of $15,780,533,623. The total bill represents $388 billion in federal spending. <br /><br /><br />"Here they go again," said Keith Ashdown, vice president of programs for the organization, in a statement. "With the fat lady singing on the 108th Congress, lawmakers have just passed a massive spending bill that virtually no one has read, and no one knows much about. Despite this, hardly anyone seems to care. <br /><br />"We heard a lot about how this bill is fiscally responsible. However, the facts speak for themselves. This bill is the fattest legislative hog that we have ever seen and despite record deficits, lawmakers are much more concerned with feathering the nests of their favorite parochial interests. If this bill is an indicator of what's to come, we will be swimming up a river of red ink for quite some time." <br /><br />Taxpayers for Common Sense listed the following as what it sees as the bill's most egregious examples of pork projects requested by lawmakers for their districts: <br /><br /><br />$25,000: Curriculum development for the study of mariachi music, Clark County School Distinct, Nev., Labor-HHS. <br /><br />$25,000: Banana Factory for an arts and technology after school program, Bethlehem, Pa., Labor-HHS. <br /><br />$45,000: A+ for Abstinence for abstinence education and related services, Waynesboro, Pa., Labor-HHS. <br /><br />$300,000: CyberSeniors, Inc. - Experience Senior Power Program, Detroit, Mich., Labor-HHS. <br /><br />$225,000: National Wild Turkey Federation, S.C., Agriculture. <br /><br />$250,000: Country Music Hall of Fame, Nashville, Tenn., VA/HUD. <br /><br />$1,000,000: Missouri Pork Producers Federation: converting animal waste into energy, Mo., VA/ HUD. <br /><br />$75,000: Renovations of the Merry Go Round Playhouse, Auburn, N.Y., VA/HUD. <br /><br />$100,000: Punxsutawney Weather Museum, Punxsutawney, Pa., VA/HUD. <br /><br />$306,000: Restroom repair at Porter Beach at Indian Dunes NL, Ind., Interior. <br /><br />$4,989,000: Stabilize bathhouses for adaptive reuse, Hot Springs, Ark., Interior. <br /><br />$800,000: Soybean Rust Research, Ames, Iowa, Interior. <br /><br />$1,593: Potato Storage, Madison, Wis., Agriculture. <br /><br />$250,000: Asparagus Technology and Production, Wash., Agriculture. <br /><br />$50,000: Feral Hogs, Mo., Agriculture. <br /><br />$150,000: Coca-Cola Space Science Center, Columbs, Ga., VA/HUD <br /><br />$150,000: Beaver management and damage. Wis., Agriculture <br /><br />$250,000: Sidewalks, street furniture, and facade improvements. Boca Raton, Fla., VA/HUD <br /><br />$200,000: American Cotton Museum. Greenville, Texas, VA/HUD.<br />According to a report in USA Today, earmarks also included $300,000 for a parking garage in Auburn, Maine, $8 million to rehabilitate a "historic cafeteria building" in Oregon's Crater Lake National Park and $1.1 million for research into the development of baby food and other products made from salmon.
