jeweledsunshine:

 

• A tattoo removal program in San Luis Obispo County, California ($50,000);
• The Fort Union Trading Post Bike Trail in North Dakota ($500,000);
• The Center on Obesity at West Virginia University ($2 million); and
• An effort to combat "goth culture" in Blue Springs, Missouri ($270,000).⁴

 

O.o

Seriously.  I think that says it all...forget "tighten the belt"...for the love of all that is frugal STOP THE BLEEDING!

The number of "research" grants out there is also staggering.  Found this link: 

http://www.thelangreport.com/?p=429

 contains information about:

 Office of Education for spending $219,592 in a “curriculum package” to teach college students how to watch television.

United States Postal Service for spending over $3.4 million on a Madison Avenue ad campaign to make Americans write more letters to one another

Federal Aviation Administration for a $57,800 study of the body measurements of airline stewardess trainees

Department of Agriculture for spending nearly $46,000 to find out how long it takes to cook breakfast.

And most importantly:

National Endowment for the Humanities for making a $25,000 grant through the state to Arlington County, VA, to study why people are rude, cheat and lie on the local tennis courts.

I often thought to myself... I'll work if the government would give me one of these cushy jobs!! I've always wanted the $100,000 job of the guy who tests ketchup drippings. 

rolo:

Until the common man, you and I, have the power to hold our "representatives" accountable by voting on their pay/benefits/retirement and the abillity to vote out poor non performers often, then what we have is NOT a democracy.

Scuse me?  We do have that power, but do not use it.

wildgift:

rolo:

Until the common man, you and I, have the power to hold our "representatives" accountable by voting on their pay/benefits/retirement and the abillity to vote out poor non performers often, then what we have is NOT a democracy.

 

Scuse me?  We do have that power, but do not use it.

clarification: yes, we can vote out the non performers but usually when the term is up, unless a recall is initiated--many of us have annual performance reviews which could cost us our job if we are poor workers--also, we don't get to implement for our own income/benefits and I feel that we should be able to vote on the politicians income/benefits--they live off the taxpayers and have better benefits/retirement than most of us will ever see.  That is not right. 

Crystola:

I know what mine are supporting...I live in WV - the house that Byrd built with pork barrels.  Even though I personally have benefitted by some of his "earmarks" even I recognize that the time is now for stopping the earmarks altogether until the economy gets straight.  When there is less money to go around...you STOP SPENDING.

Herein lies the difficulty.  Someone, somewhere is benefiting from these projects and not everyone is as gracious as Crystola and willing to give them up.  What if that "obesity research center" is providing the grant for your child to go to college?  What if that airline stewardess study was awarded to an agency in your area that was able to hire you because of the grant? 

 And Congressmen couldn't stop playing this game even if they wanted to - the system is entrenched.  For example, even Ron Paul, who is against almost all government spending, voted to bring "pork barrel" projects back to his district.  (I'm not a huge Ron Paul fan, BTW, but that's irrelevant to the example).  If he didn't, his district would be helping to pay for stupid pet projects of other Congressmen.  Its kind of the Congressman's job to bring as much money back to his home district as he can. 

This is not to say I'm personally happy with how it all works.  I'm just pointing out that you can't blame one individual representative for supporting earmarks.  It might be better instead, to tell Congress that you want the whole system changed - maybe as Crystola suggests an end to earmarks altogether, an ovreall focus on lower spending, or a more equitable division of funds, or whatever other system you would prefer. 

I wonder why they can't just take the surplus and well, never mind.  I was about to say something naive like "give it back" but . . . yeah. It's strange to think of how to undo something that has been done for long before I was even born.

jeweledsunshine:

An effort to combat "goth culture" in Blue Springs, Missouri ($270,000).⁴

I had to look this one up.  It's interesting.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/goth/goth4.html 

What a funny grant.  They went about it the wrong way. I could have gotten one goth kid into therapy for under $3,000.  You just need to hire the right outreach person.  (Not some evangelical group, either!)