Centerfield

Don Young's Way, indeed. When the new bridge is opened, do you think he'll show up to sing "My Way" before he cuts the ribbon? ;-)

If politicians like pork because their constituents reward them for it, maybe the only way to permanently kill it is to have constituents punish them for it. For instance, Alaskan newspapers could blast him for it, under the premise that while it may be good for them right now, a lot of their tax dollars are wasted on pork projects for other states.

If constituents reward their pols, I don't see how it'll ever stop.

A modest proposal to make it easier for the people to provide incentives for pols to oppose pork and other parochial spending (I use pork only to describe how appropriations, or any other legistlation, are passed, not to assess the merits of said appropriations/legislation):

Have elections for committee chairmanships.

This could work because right now, an ambitious pol (what pol is not ambitious?) has to please two constituencies in order to ascend into leadership: his/her home constituents who decide whether or not he/she stays in office and his/her party causus who select their leadership from among the officeholders. Both groups encourage support for parochial appropriations. Constituents because they get all the benefits of such appropriations while only paying a fraction and party caucuses because of the attitude of mutual back scratching.

In contrast, with a national election for leadership positions, everyone who bears the cost of the parochial expenditures, including those who derive no benefit, would have a say in the fortunes of their sponsors. Of course, this would depend on the masses actually following what happens in Congress, not just the partisans of the interest groups dependent on the government goodies.

Starve the beast and ritualistically vote out incumbents until they've proven exceptionally worthy. These people are roaches.

Here's an even better idea. Pass a law that says that the gas tax must provide every penny of funds used to make and repair roads, bridges, etc. In other words, make it an enterprise system. Give each state its share back proportional to what it pays in (or even it's electoral share!), to spend on whatever road/transportation project it wants. If there isn't enough money to pay for everything it wants to do, the rest of the dough has to come from state and local taxes.

Here's another idea--return to balanced budgets, or at least something resembling them.

If politicians like pork because their constituents reward them for it, maybe the only way to permanently kill it is to have constituents punish them for it.

To me, the problem isn't that boondoggles like this go unnoticed by the public, but rather that the constituents almost always have no choice when it comes to electing U.S. Representatives.

Thus, I think the one measure that would go the furthest in stopping this scourge of pork spending is redistricting reform. The DLC has made this a part of their platform and there is also the Fairness and Independence in Redistricting bill sponsored by Rep. John Tanner (R-TN).

Of course, at-large Reps like Don Young won't be affected by redistricting reform, but such reform could go a long way toward changing the culture of irresponsibility that permeates both parties in Congress.

i dunno guys, I just can't imagine a vehicle for constituents punishing their senators for pork. Frankly, they're bringing home the bacon. That is HOW they get re-elected, and it's WHY they get re-elected.

I support redistricting reform, but I harbor no illusions about its impact on pork. it may well change the places where the pork goes, but there seems to me to be no reason whatsoever to think it will stem the flow rate.

Pork is as much a part of democratic politics as elections. Let's face it, it's what greases the wheel. It's pointless, IMO, to rail about pork--constituents like it for obvious reasons and it's not "pork" to them. As they say, all politics is local. Frankly, I think all the attempts to legislate against pork and other imperfections simply misunderstand the nature of the process. This isn't ninth-grade civics; democracy is messy and unlovely; it's about people fighting for their own interests often at the expense of the common good. I don't see how you can legislate against that or whether you even should.

You can't stop it, so the next-best thing would be to choke down the funding availabiity. Thus my suggestion on budgeting reforms.

I'll toot AZ's horn a bit. One of our congressman, Jeff Flake, has repeatedly spoken against "pork" even to the point of voting against bills that would bring more moneyto his district because of the pork in the bill.

I believe Flake wasn't the only Arizona congresscritter to do that, Chris. Weren't there two of them (including Flake) who requested that their share of the "automatic pork ration" simply be transferred to the state highway department? I think the "ration" is something like $14 million per district.