Pork Jerky, Alaska-style

Glenn Reynolds, N.Z. Bear and the rest of the pork-busting blogosphere are doing a fabulous job shedding light on all the dripping fat in Washington. I think Alaska GOP Rep. Don Young deserves a targeted blog pressure campaign all his own.

Via the liberal website Think Progress, Young continues to squeal about bipartisan attacks on his precious pork projects. I’m nominating him the Biggest, Oinkiest Jerk in Congress. From the transcript of his most recent interview:

REPORTER: Isn’t there a bunch of stuff in that highway bill, at least 24 billion dollars, that could be taken out and used for the people in New Orleans and Mississippi and the places that were affected?

REP. YOUNG: No! That money is not there! That money is for transportation! That is not added pork. See, that’s why the whole media — Wall Street Journal, yourself, respectfully, you know, Sam Donaldson — don’t know what the hell you are talking about. This is grandstanding by individuals that don’t know what they’re talking about. I’ll go back to that. It’s ignorance and stupidity.

This guy has no shame. If you have a moment, can you call or e-fax his office:

WASHINGTON, DC OFFICE
2111 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5765 – Phone
(202) 225-0425 – Fax

Kiss my ear, Congressman!

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Update: Alaskan reader John L. writes…

Hello Michelle:

We Alaskans can afford to pay for our own bridges.

Just look at the numbers: 42% of our state revenue is from oil royalties and taxes. 39% of our annual revenue is earnings from our Permanent Fund, which was created from and is funded by, that’s right, oil revenues. At current production, each dollar increase in the price of Alaskan crude increases our state revenue by $50-60 million per year. Our FY06 budget is based on a barrel of oil priced at $38.60. It is currently almost double that. Check out our budget.

In short, Alaska is reaping a huge windfall from the current spike in oil prices.

In addition, on October 12, each man, woman and child in the state will get a check for $846, representing their share of the oil wealth for the year. We pay no state individual income tax.

If these bridges are so important, (I think they are) we should pay for them with state revenues and allocate the federal funds to hurricane relief. We can certainly afford it.

Congressman Don Young needs to get with the program and bust some of our own pork.

Amen!

Andrew Stuttaford weighs in:

Pork is the poster child for government bloat, and it needs to highlighted, project by project, by project, and the politicians who push it should be made to defend each project again and again. It’s also important (I think that Tom Coburn’s efforts are running in this direction) to push through a more general legislative change that makes that sort of spending far more visible.

Of Young he asks: “Why on earth would anyone vote for this man?”

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Background from…

The Weekly Standard: Old Don Young Had a Farm
WSJ: A “Moronic” Proposal
Salon: A Bridge to Nowhere
The Agitator: The Hell with Don Young
Mark Tapscott: Has the GOP Lost Its Soul?

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Cut out the fat!