Have You Got Your Fair Share?

Of what you might ask?

You know…GOVERNMENT PORK!

The Citizens Against Government Waste have just released their new 2005 Congressional Pig Book. Are you and your fellow state citizens getting your fair share?

Here is a listing of Federal spending by state. I’m proud to say that Georgia is number 49 out of 51. At first glance one might be inclined to say that Georgians should be angry at Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson and that Glynn County should be voting Representative Jack Kingston out of office.

I’m proud that Georgia didn’t consume more of this indigestible “pork” than we did. While the national average for “pork spending” is $33.03, all of us rednecks in Georgia only gobbled up an average of $14.83 each.

I notice a couple of strange things about the basis of the survey. Why is it that the states with low populations like Alaska ($645,502,000), the District of Columbia ($257,171,000), and Hawaii ($573,926,000) were numbers 1, 2 and 3, while big states like California ($237,593,250) and Texas ($65,301,250) are numbers 50 and 51?

Perhaps the most telling statistic is that lowly West Virginia, land of Robert KKK “pretty pretty” Byrd, was the number four benefactor on the list, obtaining $398,622,250 of US tax dollars for its 1.8 million population. That works out to a little over $219 for every man, woman, and child in the coal mine state.

I remember that Byrd once funded the construction of a new FBI lab building in West Virginia (bearing his own name) and had to wait over a year to legislate funding to be able to actually afford to hire some people to work in the new facility. What a farce.

I’m not going to be as simplistic in thought as to suggest that such a method is possible, but if our Congress could keep federal spending on a per capita basis to that of Texas ($2.90) this year, the budget would be reduced by $8.85 trillion dollars from the current $9.7 trillion dollar level.

And by the way, isn’t it interesting that beleaguered House Speaker Tom Delay’s Texas is at the bottom of the list?

Can you say Democratic retaliation?

Just wondering…