The Pig Book

Unfortunately, a busy work schedule and a late dinner celebration (today is my 20th birthday) mean that I have had little time to write any more analyses today (Check out my previous post on the really worrisome debt ceiling polling done by both the Washington Post and Gallup).

But in the absence of analysis, I thought it would be fun to post the 2010 "Pig Book" for people who are bored at work or who have a little extra free time.

The pig book is a compilation of the most egregious and blatant earmarks of the previous year put together by Citizens Against Government Waste, a governmental watchdog organization. Some of the earmarks that congressmen request are amazingly obscure and oftentimes very humorous. For instance,

The latest installment of CAGW’s 20-year exposé of pork-barrel

spending includes $4,481,000 for wood utilization research,

$300,000 for Carnegie Hall in New York City, and $200,000 for

the Washington National Opera in the District of Columbia.

For an introduction to the Pig Book, check out this link.

To jump right to the most recent book (2010) and see some of the hilarious things that our representatives request money for, check it out here.

My next post will be about whether or not earmarks should be acceptable in modern day politics. I will also discuss the oftentimes overlooked positive merits of earmarks. Make sure to take a look!