Pork... it's what's for breakfast in Washington

Last July Harper's magazine published "The Great American Pork Barrel" by Ken Silverstein. The article detailed how the process of pork spending had become a cottage industry in Washington, DC. He highlighted how the practice has become vastly more common in the past few years:

Last year, 15,584 separate earmarks worth a combined $32.7 billion were attached to appropriations bills—more than twice the dollar amount in 2001, when 7,803 earmarks accounted for $15 billion; and more than three times the amount in 1998, when roughly 2,000 earmarks totaled $10.6 billion.

Perhaps the biggest problem with process is that the earmarks--specific dollar amounts appropriated for specific projects--are attached to spending bills at the last possible minute. The Senator or Representative responsible for attaching them is usually not known, and legislators rarely have time to read the modified bills with the new earmarks before voting on them.

Despite some efforts to reduce the problem, it sounds like it's business as usual according to the Associated Press.