I have long advocated that house and senate rules require that any
amendments to a bill have to be directly related to that bill, no
non-related riders, period...
The chances of the public getting their elected representatives to make such
a rule and actually earn their keep by openly voting on every piece of pork
as a separate bill in it's own right, range between zero and minus
infinity...
I suspect that whoever will write the book, The Rise, Decline, and Fall, of
The United States of America, roughly a thousand years from now, will cite
that specific issue as being directly responsible for the final economic
collapse of our country due to every dollar of the GNP becoming someones,
"entitlement"...
denny

"Richard Russell" wrote in message It's pork,
pure and simple. Pork was never required to make sense.
The only requirement is that it brings money into the state. No need
to try to rationalize it beyond that.
Rich Russell