Pork Illustrated

Ken McCracken  •  November 8, 2007

Have you ever been reading an article or a report about all the billions upon billions of dollars in pork Congress stuck into one appropriations bill or the other, but really just had a hard time wrapping your mind around where it’s all going?
Well the folks at the Sunlight Foundation have put together an interactive Google Earth feature that shows where all the appropriations in the last defense bill went. It’s…revealing, to be certain.
Click here to download the file which works with Google Earth. If you don’t have Google Earth on your computer (and it’s so cool you’ve been missing out if you don’t) you can download that for free here.

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  • http://Array robert108

    Rob: Generally speaking, defense spending isn’t “pork”, unless it’s used for things we don’t really need to defend our country.

  • robert108

    Some of those appropriations are, in fact, pork.

    You talked about pork and then only mentioned defense spending. Actually, I think you’ll find that while defense spending in necessary, most pork is completely unnecessary. Of course, some defense spending is excessive(it’s govt, after all), but that doesn’t necessarily make it “pork”.

  • carrick

    Actually if somebody could explain to me where the 2/3 of the US budget that goes into entitlement spending goes, I’d appreciate it more. After that, the 1-2 % spent on pork might be more interesting.

  • carrick

    Robert108:

    Of course, some defense spending is excessive(it’s
    govt, after all), but that doesn’t necessarily make it “pork”.

    Except the “transparency” guys define anything that is “plus-upped” as pork. Regardless of whether the dollars are well spent, they all get lumped together. You can see this by looking at individual bills that are in the appropriations.

    For example “Improved Passive Sensor Design” (from one of the sites) hardly sounds like pork, and if used as part of a sniper-detection, would mean fewer people returning in a body bag.

    On the other hand, it’s kind of hard to reconcile that most of the 2/3′s spent in entitlements isn’t just being pissed away.

    I love transparency, would like more of it, including in how the DOD makes spending decisions. Just because they bless it, doesn’t make it optimal right off the bat. I’ve always found the more eyes look at something, the better it gets vetted.

  • robert108

    Regardless of whether the dollars are well spent, they all get lumped together.

    I define pork as unnecessary spending for the purpose of buying votes.

    I love transparency, would like more of it, including in how the DOD makes spending decisions.

    On the other hand, with defense spending, there is always the aspect of national security.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com robport

    Actually if somebody could explain to me where the 2/3 of the US budget that goes into entitlement spending goes, I’d appreciate it more. After that, the 1-2 % spent on pork might be more interesting

    Hey, I don’t disagree, but this came across my feed reader and I’m always willing to give an “atta boy” to transparency advocates.

    Generally speaking, defense spending isn’t “pork”, unless it’s used for things we don’t really need to defend our country.

    I didn’t say that defense spending was pork. I said the map shows where all the appropriations in the defense spending bill went. Some of those appropriations are, in fact, pork.

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