EL PORKO GRANDE'

Joining the Pork Post, a blog movement to stop pork spending, is too stupid for words. Every pork in my district is a work project involving contractors, workers, and in some cases cities and towns. "Let's stop adding a wing onto the Children's Hospital," "Demand an end to road improvement in (name the racial ghetto)," and so on forever. Most Pork is jobs. Now there are undoubtedly those cities and towns that, like N'Awlins, are corrupt to their core and the Pork is just money to stick in some politico pockets, but actually find them, and after finding them try to get rid of them, just try. It's also easy to find a few easy to laugh at projects: therapeutic horseback riding and a school mariachi music curriculum are two that are easy to laugh at, but you can bet a few well known doctors will rise up to defend the medical benefits of riding horses, and educators will scream racial discrimination over the mariachi music pointing to "European classical music instruction" as an example of white music being forced down the throats of helpless minorities. Things like The recovery of Preble's Meadow Jumping Mouse ($500,000); and $100,000 for the Alabama Quail Trail would need years of examining now that they are rolling. And the 50K for a tattoo removal program in San Luis Obispo County, California will create jobs. 50K is an interesting figure because most Pork is chump change, it's the total that is staggering.

Below are two of the roughly 250,000 Porko Projects. Pretend they are in your hometown and you'll see what I mean. The truth of the matter is that at least fifty percent of all Grants are phony anyway. However here a a very few places to save, starting with money they can't find:

The Missing $25 Billion Find it, I dare you..

Buried in the Department of the Treasury’s 2003 Financial Report of the United States Government is a short section titled “Unreconciled Transactions Affecting the Change in Net Position,” which explains that these unreconciled transactions totaled $24.5 billion in 2003.

The unreconciled transactions are funds for which auditors cannot account: The government knows that $25 billion was spent by someone, somewhere, on something, but auditors do not know who spent it, where it was spent, or on what it was spent. Blaming these unreconciled transactions on the failure of federal agencies to report their expenditures adequately, the Treasury report con­cludes that locating the money is “a priority.” The unreconciled $25 billion could have funded the entire Department of Justice for an entire year.

Medicare Overspending

Medicare; THE sacred cow of all cows, wastes more money than any other federal program, yet its strong public support leaves lawmakers hesitant to address program effi­ciencies, which cost taxpayers and Medicare recip­ients billions of dollars annually, money legislators won't find or even focus upon.

For example, Medicare pays as much as eight times what other federal agencies pay for the same drugs and medical supplies.[6] The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently com­pared the prices paid by Medicare and the Depart­ment of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care program for 16 types of medical equipment and supplies, which account for one-quarter of Medicare’s equip­ment and supplies purchases. The evidence showed that Medicare paid an average of more than double what the VA paid for the same items. The largest difference was for saline solution, with Medicare paying $8.26 per liter compared to the $1.02 paid by the VA.

These higher prices not only cost the program more money, but also take more money out of the pockets of Medicare beneficiaries. In 2002, senior citizens’ co-payments accounted for 20 percent of the $9.4 billion in allowed claims for medical equipment and supplies.[8] Higher prices mean higher co-payments.

Medicare also overpays for drugs. In 2000, Medicare’s payments for 24 leading drugs were $1.9 billion higher than they would have been under the prices paid by the VA or other federal agencies. Although Medicare is supposed to pay wholesale prices for drugs, it relies on drug manu­facturers to define the prices, and manufacturers have strong incentives to inflate their prices.[9]

Nor are inflated prices for drugs and supplies the most expensive examples of Medicare’s inefficien­cies. Basic payment errors—the results of deliber­ate fraud and administrative errors—cost $12.3 billion annually. As much as $7 billion owed to the program has gone uncollected or has been written off.[10] Finally, while Medicare contracts claims pro­cessing and administration to several private com­panies, 19 cases of contractor fraud have been settled in recent years, with a maximum settlement of $76 million.[11]

Putting it all together, Medicare reform could save taxpayers and program beneficiaries $20 bil­lion to $30 billion annually without reducing ben­efits. That would be enough to fund a $3,000 refundable health care tax credit for nearly 10 mil­lion uninsured low-income households.

The Heritage Foundation has a complete and sickening list, including grants of money to colleges that don't even exist. I dare you to cut it.