Yahoo! News - AP: Budget Has Room for Special Projects
WASHINGTON - Austerity in big-ticket government programs hasn't dulled lawmakers' appetite for special interest spending items that curry favor back home.

The spending plan awaiting President Bush's signature is packed with them, doling out $4 million for an Alabama fertilizer development center, $1 million each for a Norwegian American Foundation in Seattle and a "Wild American Shrimp Initiative," and more, much more.

Despite soaring deficits, lawmakers from both parties who approved the $388 billion package last weekend set plenty of money aside for home-district projects like these, knowing they sow goodwill among special interests and voters.

They also raised the ire of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a pork-barrel critic who took to the Senate floor to ask whether shrimp are so unruly and lacking initiative that the government must spend $1 million on them.

"Why does the U.S. taxpayer need to fund this `no shrimp left behind' act?" he asked. McCain's query went unanswered, in part because spending documents don't identify who proposed each item or why.

You so funny, John. Seriously, I would like to see these provisions identified, although it's probably pretty easy to track back to which state is receiving the bucks- for example, mine!

Michigan's two Democratic senators, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, let it be known they had won $4 million for an environmentally friendly public transportation system in Traverse City.

Which probably consists of some bicycles and cross-country skis. I wonder if Carl and Debbie condemned their own actions like they did last time. "Pork spending is baaaaad, but we're proud to announce that we got some for Michigan!"