The press has had some fun recently pointing to the scramble by members of Congress to dig into the federal pork barrel to finance various projects in their districts.
Most members talk of restraining federal spending.
Fortunately, most of today's pork projects aren't as greasy as they might have been two decades ago. Mr. Ross, a consultant with the Schwab Washington Research Group, reckons that the really silly projects add up to only a few billion. Most of the individual projects cost a few million or less. His point is not that pork barreling is a good thing, but that despite the extra spending of Congress in this election year, the budget surplus is going to grow, not diminish, for at least the next couple of years. Ross figures, unless drivers had permanently parked their SUVs or found tax-free gas.