How do you get pigs to vote for cutting fat?

Howard Kurtz is concerned about the effect of spending billions to rebuilt the Gulf Coast and New Orleans, as I am. But things like this don't count as deficit spending according to the rules governing reporting such things. If the $200 billion comes out of revenues, i.e. is given in the form of tax credits and exemptions, I'm less worried, but however you slice it this will affect how much the Feds have to spend. What concerns me is that this kind of assistance has become a new entitlement. Everything spent by the federal government is wasteful, because there's so much money sloshing around at that level that nobody can really get a grasp on the whole thing, let alone stand up to all the advocates for a particular spending program, when there are so few who oppose it and know enough to make a case against it. Then there's the problem of building a consensus on what programs are fat and which are justified.

Over the weekend I watch BookTV a lot. This week there was a segment featuring Charles W. Calhoun discussing his biography of Benjamin Harrison. The biggest fiscal problems during Harrison's presidency was that the government was running surpluses because tariffs were bringing in more than was needed. Harrison, a Republican, was opposed to lowering taxes, and proposed instead to use the surplus for public works. That was the beginning of pork barrel politiics. It has now been a tradition for more than a century. You're only critical of pork when you're not benefiting from it.