Pork Barrel Tech Projects On The Rise

An anonymous reader writes "News.com has a large article up exploring the increase in 'pork barrel'-style technology projects floating through government spending bills. The water-free urinals discussed on Slashdot last year are one such project, as is a 'Virtual Reality Spray Paint Simulator'." From the article: "Earmarks for favored recipients--known colloquially as pork--have become easier than ever for politicians to secure because of the rapid growth in homeland security and military spending, especially if they can find some plausible technological veneer. Exact figures are difficult to obtain, mostly because spending bills tend to be intentionally obfuscated and specifics are usually absent from legislative text. Government watchdogs, however, say earmarks ostensibly related to technology are clearly on the rise."

Comments

Down with big government!

[Kelson]

Clearly, we need to get some Republicans into power so they can cut down on all this extraneous spending and balance the budget.

Oh, wait...

Re:Down with big government!

[TommyBlack]

Bah. Big government is the new libertarianism. Having a big, stupid government that can't do anything right is far superior to having a sleek, functioning government that can oppress its people at a moment's notice.

This is surprising how?

[WindBourne]

Combine this admin's deficit spending like a drunk sailor and the current level of corruption of the congress, and yes, you are going to get loads of pork. Until new laws are made to restrict lobbyists influence, we will see more even when the democrats win the congress back. Sadly, I note that neither party was really wanting to curtail the lobbyiest "influence". Congressman Hefley from Colorado was booted off the ehtics committeee because other republicans was pissed that he was going after some of the worst, esp. Tom Delay. He has pushed for several good laws to stop this "influence".

BTW, in other nations, we would call this type of influence bribery and corruption. Here we now call it business as usual.

I dunno...

[Otter]

I have to pay for this stuff, and I don't like having my money wasted any more than the next guy does. But the only criterion these stories ever seem to use to decide what is particularly wasteful is whether they can be described in a comical fashion. Hahahahaha -- urinals! There's plenty of serious-sounding stuff in the budget that returns a lot less value to taxpayers than water conservation.

Also, while a dollar is a dollar, even a hundred million here and there is rounding error on the federal budget. The real pieces are Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, pensions, the military and debt servicing; arguing about anything else is mostly a distraction from the structural problems.

One party rule

[plopez]

What makes the pork easier is the defacto one party rule. There is no real accountability, and congress at this point is also no better than the president's rubber stamp. WIth a split congress some of the excesses may dissappear. As well as returning a little democracy to congress.