2006 Pig Book

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INTRODUCTION

The guilty pleas of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham illustrate how pork-barrel projects, whether used as currency for re-election or as political favors to well-connected individuals or businesses, can corrupt the political process.  The historic lack of restraint in the appropriations process has helped create a projected $371 billion budget deficit in fiscal 2006 and a national debt of $8.5 trillion.  Whether the lobbying scandal and the outrage of taxpayers over “bridges to nowhere” will force Congress to cut the pork remains to be seen.

The 2006 Congressional Pig Book is the latest installment of Citizens Against Government Waste’s (CAGW) 16-year exposé of pork-barrel spending.  This year’s list includes:  $13,500,000 for the International Fund for Ireland, which helped finance the World Toilet Summit; $6,435,000 for wood utilization research; $1,000,000 for the Waterfree Urinal Conservation Initiative; and $500,000 for the Sparta Teapot Museum in Sparta, N.C.

2006 Pig Book Summary

http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagena...rts_pigbook2006

The 2006 Congressional Pig Book Summary gives a snapshot of each appropriations bill and details 375 of the juciest projects culled from the complete Pig Book PDF.

http://www.cagw.org/site/DocServer/2006Pig....pdf?docID=1541

Main page

http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer