Stop the Pork Spending

The amount of pork spending in this nation has reached beyond the breaking point. The tragedy of Katrina has brought the misuse of taxpayer dollars to the forefront. Our federal tax dollars are being earmarked daily for pet projects from local governments all at the taxpayer's expense. I happened to go over to the Citizens Against Government Waste website and did some searching to find how much money was earmarked for 2005. The numbers were staggering. Of course, as long as we sit by, this will continue to happen on a regular basis. I decided to write my congressional representative for the 2nd District in Alabama, Terry Everett, to let him know that we can't sustain such wasteful spending:

Dear Rep. Everett:

As you know Hurricane Katrina wrought an immeasurable amount of damage to the residents of Louisiana, Mississippi, and our own Alabama. While many, like Sen. Landrieu of Louisiana, have proposed outrageous amounts of money to be spent on the reconstruction effort most citizens see the need to cut the amount of federally funded projects which have been earmarked. These projects, often labeled “pork,” should be cut and much of the money should be diverted to the Katrina relief effort.
I was surprised at just how much money was being spent on these “pork” projects for our state. Among the many I’ve noticed affecting the House are:

· $250,000 Chattahoochee Valley Community College for a law enforcement training program (State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance - Byrne Discretionary Grant)
· $700,000 University of South Alabama for youth violence prevention research (Discretionary Grants - Juvenile Justice Programs)
· $250,000 City of Mobile Police Department for mobile data terminals (Law Enforcement Technology - Community Oriented Policing Services)
· $500,000 Madison County Sheriff's Department Technology and Equipment upgrades (Law Enforcement Technology - Community Oriented Policing Services)
· $2,100,000 Munitions Recycling Capability - Anniston Munitions Center (Procurement of Ammunition, Army)
· $1,000,000 University of Alabama, Huntsville climate research (NOAA - Research, Other Partnership Programs)
· $1,000,000 Smart Energy Management Control Systems Project (Electricity Transmission and Distribution - Department of Energy)
· $3,451,000 Alabama Coosa River (Corp of Engineers: Operation and Maintenance)
· $1,162,000 Black Warrior and Tombigbee Rivers (Corp of Engineers: Operation and Maintenance)
· $5,500,000 Fourteen Mile Bridge, Mobile (Alteration of Bridges - United States Coast Guard)

And the list just goes on and on and on. What happened to Republican representatives being fiscally conservative and responsible? What direction are we taking this nation when we spend money on unnecessary projects for personal reasons? The pork spending has to stop. Each year the deficit spins further and further out of control thanks, in large part, to the misuse of taxpayer dollars. If we are going to spend upwards of $250 billion on rebuilding efforts from Hurricane Katrina we are going to have to cut out these pork projects. As representative for our district I hope you will see the importance of the issue of pork spending and will address the issue appropriately. We can’t continue on this downward spiral.