|
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Pork In Perspective
As President Bush calls on the Senate to pass its version of line-item veto legislation as a means of controlling government spending, it’s important to keep in mind just how much pork barrel spending is in relation to other important budget data points.
According to Citizens Against Government Waste, the government spent $23.7 billion on "pork-barrel" spending. No small sum, for sure.
But, $23.7 billion is but a fraction (7.5%) of the $317 billion FY2005 federal budget deficit.
At less than one percent (0.96%) of the $2.5 trillion the government spent in 2005, it’s barely recognizable.
If we look at just discretionary spending - spending that is authorized each year by congress through the budget process - we see that earmark spending (i.e. "pork") composed only 2.45% of $968 billion in spending authorized by congress in FY2005.
So, for all the jumping up-and-down and speechifying about how important the line-item veto will be in restraining spending, it’s quite clear that the president and congress are not serious about getting control of the budget deficit.
Let me also call your attention to a handy set of data produced by the CBO - a PDF of Historic Budget Data. It's a set of tables neatly summarizing the revenues and outlays of the federal government 1962-2005.
Posted by Craig Jennings
|