President Bush will request $41.3 billion in the fiscal 2004 budget, which he will submit next week,...

President Bush will request $41.3 billion in the fiscal 2004 budget,

which he will submit next week, to fund domestic homeland security

efforts, a U.S. official said on Thursday.

As a general principle, the Federal government should bail out private

companies or industries of private companies

that encounter sudden and unexpected

business downturns

U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK as of 05 Nov 2003

•The estimated population of the United States is 292,443,881

•Each citizen's share of this debt is $23,466.39.

•The National Debt has increased an average of11.58 billion per day since September 30, 2002!

Deficit for 1988 - $115,900,000,000.00Deficit for 1996 - $111,000,000,000.00Deficit for 1997 - $113,700,000,000.00Deficit for 1998 - $169,000,000,000.00Deficit for 1999 - $265,000,000,000.00Deficit for 2000 - $375,700,000,000.00Deficit for 2002 - $435,000,000,000.00

• ACTIVITIES DESIGNED TO DETERMINE WHTHER OR NOT A POLICY IS WORKING AS INTENDED

• WHAT ARE SOME OF THOSE ACTIVITIES?

INFORMATION INTERCHANGE OF

PERSONNEL

INFORMATION CAMPAIGN SUPPORT

PROGRAM SUPPORT

CONTRACTS REGULATIONS

INFORMATION SUPPORT

BUDGET SUPPORT SUSTAIN AGENCY INCREASED

JURISDICTION

POLICY SUPPORT

“The members [of Congress] … . make a compact by which each aids

the other. This is logrolling.”

The term "pork barrel" stems back to the early 1800s when the

popular meat was packed that way, and hungry farm hands

reached in for slabs of salt pork. In 1879, it was adopted as

political slang to mean goodies for the local district paid for by

the taxpayers at large.

$107,000 to study the sex life of the Japanese quail. $1.2 million to study the breeding habits of the woodchuck. $150,000 to study the Hatfield-McCoy feud. $84,000 to find out why people fall in love. $1 million to study why people don't ride bikes to work.

2003 MOST ABSURD PORK

$19 million to examine gas emissions from cow flatulence. $144,000 to see if pigeons follow human economic laws. Funds to study the cause of rudeness on tennis courts and examine smiling patterns in bowling alleys. $219,000 to teach college students how to watch television. $2 million to construct an ancient Hawaiian canoe.

$20 million for a demonstration project to build wooden bridges. $160,000 to study if you can hex an opponent by drawing an X on his chest. $800,000 for a restroom on Mt. McKinley. $100,000 to study how to avoid falling spacecraft. $16,000 study of the the komungo, a Korean instrument.

$1 million to preserve a sewer in Trenton, NJ, as a historic monument. $6,000 for a document on Worcestershire sauce. $10,000 to study the effect of naval communications on a bull's potency. $100,000 to research soybean-based ink.

$1 million for a Seafood Consumer Center. $57,000 spent by the Executive Branch for gold-embossed playing cards on Air Force Two.

Total ABSURD PORKfrom previous pages:

$ 45,980,000

Organization Amount           

1 Philip Morris $3,817,714 21% 79%

2 US Smokeless Tobacco $1,411,529 13% 87%

3 RJ Reynolds Tobacco $1,077,850 11% 89%

4 Brown & Williamson Tobacco

$672,608 8% 92%

5 Vector Group $628,762 88% 12%

6 Lorillard Tobacco $528,463 7% 93%

7 Conwood Co $233,980 4% 96%

8 Swisher International $208,350 38% 62%

9 General Cigar Holdings $112,050 26% 74%

10 Cigar Assn of America $77,860 9% 91%

Organization Amount

1 Environmental Litigation Group

$58,000 100% 0%

2 Global Green USA $29,250 100% 0%

3 Save Our Everglades $27,500 98% 2%

4 Sierra Club $14,717 100% 0%

5 Natural Resources Defense Council

$11,750 66% 34%

6 Green Worlds Coalition Fund $9,500 5% 95%

7 League of Conservation Voters

$6,500 85% 15%