Guns and Pork
Time for a different kind of Congress.

By Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste
October 4, 2001 9:35 a.m.

ighting terrorism is correctly now the nation's number one priority. It will be difficult and it won't be cheap, as illustrated by the $40 billion appropriated by Congress this month for openers. No doubt the coming years will see hundreds of billions of additional antiterrorism spending. The question now isn't whether or not we should spend more, but rather where will the money come from, and how well it will be spent?

Congress and the president have two options. They can repeatedly go back to the American taxpayer during these tough economic times, or they can systematically cut government waste and pork-barrel projects to move tens of billions of dollars into essential programs. It's great the political parties are cooperating in this time of crisis, but where is the bipartisan effort to cut pork to protect Americans from evildoers?

It doesn't require anything close to the heroism on display in New York and the Pentagon for an official on Capitol Hill to lead the way in giving up his pork projects. The nation is waiting for a senator to say, "I will sacrifice the $3.5 million I have requested to restore the Vulcan statue in Alabama to pay for three Tomahawk cruise missiles." Taxpayers are looking for a few good members of Congress to state, "We don't need $5.8 million this year to study wood utilization, since we've spent $62 million on this research since 1985. It's more important to use the money to buy an M-1 Abrams tank and two dozen Sidewinder missiles." If every member of Congress had taken these steps last year, our defense and intelligence services could have had $18.5 billion more than they did this year. Who knows what good those resources could have done?

But it's not too late to trim next year's bacon. In fact, the timing could not be better. Congress is poised to pass a continuing resolution through October 16th, and over the next three weeks consider each of the 13 appropriations bills that run government. Will a member of the House or Senate stand before the American people and say, "I will give up $150,000 for the Rock School of Pennsylvania Ballet, enough to buy half a dozen Maverick missiles for the fight against terrorism?" Will some appropriator sacrifice this year's installment of $200,000 for international asparagus competitiveness? Certainly such frivolous expenditures can be left for another, better day.

Members of Congress did not take a "no-pork pledge" when the nation had a $292 billion annual deficit. A national debt of $5.5 trillion wasn't enough. Even with Social Security imperiled by tens of trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities over the next 30 years, legislators have steadily ratcheted up hometown pork: $12.1 billion in fiscal '99, $17.7 billion in 2000, and $18.5 billion in fiscal 2001, which ends September 30.

In just six of the 13 spending bills now being considered on Capitol Hill for fiscal 2002, CAGW has found 3,056 earmarks worth $5.6 billion; including $35 million for parking lots and garages; $4.3 million for shrimp aquaculture research, $3.7 million for bicycle paths, and $2.5 million for agriculture waste management. These amounts would pay for a large arsenal of ammunition, weapons, and aircraft. Of course, pork is just a drop in the bucket of misused money that pervades Washington — CAGW estimates $1.2 trillion will be thrown away in waste, fraud, and mismanagement over the next five years — but its elimination would be an awfully good start.

To provide appropriate resources for national security, in the short term it is acceptable to use payroll taxes as a source of funding. But, it is not acceptable to rely on such monies indefinitely when there are scores of outdated, mismanaged, and redundant programs in the budget soaking up resources that should have been eliminated decades ago.

In this crisis, it would be easy to ignore the need to reorder priorities and conserve resources. But when terrorism is finally under control, will Americans be happy with an even bigger government that has not made a sufficient effort to become more efficient and effective?

Members of Congress should work night and day to pass spending bills that reflect the new reality and reject their old, wasteful ways. They should choose guns over pork and provide citizens with a safe, secure, and fiscally responsible nation.