Some of the things your children and grandchildren will be paying for as reported by The New York Times:
Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, is a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, so it is no surprise that the bill is studded with grants to projects in his state. Waterloo, Iowa, a city of about 70,000 people, will receive $135,000 for its arts center, $500,000 for a museum of history and science, $450,000 for a school injury prevention program, $2.5 million for highway improvements, $250,000 for a technology center and $200,000 for an industrial park.
Representative Jim Nussle, Republican of Iowa, is the fiscally conservative chairman of the House Budget Committee. But he boasted this week of all the money he had secured for his district, including $500,000 for a hospital in Dubuque and $1 million for sewer construction in Davenport.
Another Republican, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, boasted that he had secured $1 million for a flood-control project on the Rio Grande, $1 million for a clinic to treat children with heart problems in San Antonio and $300,000 to improve emergency communications in El Paso.
Not to be outdone by the Republicans, Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, issued more than 50 news releases in the last two days boasting that he had obtained millions of dollars earmarked for constituents.
The money includes $500,000 for the New York Botanical Garden, $100,000 for the American-Italian Cancer Foundation, $500,000 for the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, $3 million for research on the genetics of grapes and $199,000 for the control of Canada geese. “The geese have overrun and polluted our water and land,” Mr. Schumer said.
So has the pork.