Cutting the Pork Cannot Save our Bacon

These certainly are interesting days in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Fuel cost increases have thrown the country into a wallet-clutching seizure, basic health care continues to cost more for poorer service, and we are still mired in a war with little purpose and even less hope for success. Amidst all this, it seems everywhere I turn lately, unfortunately, the issue of “Pork-barrel Spending” is on the tip of everyone’s tongue. MPR had a program discussing pork spending on Tuesday during their “Midmorning” show, the Star Tribune ran an op-ed piece on Wednesday on the subject, and every citizen I seem to talk a bit of politics with wants to weigh in on the alleged “reckless spending” of our federal government.

On the surface, calling attention to and criticizing wasteful or excessive government spending is a no-brainer issue. Most everyone agrees that laughable projects such as the now infamous “bridge to nowhere” are unwise uses for tax dollars and would rather see the government exercise some restraint in its spending habits. Most agree that the United States is not in the best financial situation right now, with our trade deficit to China alone running anywhere from 13 to 20 billion (with a B) dollars per month. Most agree that it is about time we did something to fix this situation and long for competent leadership to place us back on the right path.

Politicians such as John McCain and Tom Coburn have recognized the public’s general agreement on these issues and made battling pork their primary mission in Washington, positioning themselves as the champions of fiscal responsibility and defenders of our bank accounts. They pose as crusaders against wasteful, irresponsible spenders, charging into battle against pork with an abandon that would make the great Achaean Achilles sing their praises to the gods and makes the public ooze with admiration. The sad reality is that these antics do little more than distract the public from our real financial issues.

Let’s go over this very simply: Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), the self described “#1 taxpayer watchdog,” places the estimate for pork-barrel spending in 2006 at right around $29 billion. Not all of this is necessarily wasteful spending, since “pork” spending is actually defined as a line-item in an appropriations bill that designates tax dollars for a specific purpose in circumvention of established budgetary procedures, but it seems reasonable and fair to allocate that entire $29 billion as pure waste. $29 billion; pretty big number, right? Of course it is. The problem is what this is as a percentage of our federal budget.

In 2006 our federal budget, the total amount the US government is planning to spend, is scheduled to be $2.7 trillion dollars. This means that the $29 billion everyone is up in arms about, the $29 billion McCain and Coburn are making their careers on, only amounts to around 1.04% of the federal budget. 1.04%! Even if we could somehow eliminate all of this wasteful spending, magically lift it straight out of the bills congress is considering, it wouldn’t begin to solve the financial problems the United States is facing today.

The financial problems in the United States today are not caused by pork-spending. Sure, wasting $29 billion is bad and everyone agrees that we should do our best to cut and eliminate wasteful spending, but the fact remains that concentrating on 1% distracts us from fixing the bigger challenges we face such as taxation reform, healthcare reform, and the looming energy crisis. Only taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture can save our bacon, and it all starts with cutting our obsession with pork.