Jan Ting on Budget & Economy

Focus on wasteful earmarks and excessive government spending

A: Pork barrel "earmark" spending by the Congress has more than doubled over the past 5 years, from $33 billion in 2001 to $67 billion in the current year for wasteful projects like the bridge to nowhere, the railroad to nowhere, the indoor rainforest in Iowa, and the Paper Industry Hall of Fame in Wisconsin. Concern over the federal deficit is properly directed at excessive government spending, and not at the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts