Blending dinosaur and swine metaphors, Sen. Jeff Flake released “Jurassic Pork” Thursday — a report aimed at highlighting projects that survived despite the 2010 earmark moratorium.
“Fossilized within the federal budget, these projects continue to cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Many have even outlasted the terms of the politicians who created them,” the Arizona Republican wrote. “While providing a glimpse into the past and the corrupting nature of the earmark favor factory and pork barrel politics that politicians in both parties are seeking to revive, Jurassic Pork also offers recommendations for Congress. First and foremost, like the age of the dinosaur, it would be best if the practice of earmarking remained a thing of the past.”
The report is timed for the release of “Jurassic World,” the latest in the “Jurassic Park” film franchise.
Unsurprisingly, the National Endowment for the Arts was under fire, noting $330,000 of federal spending since the ban supporting the American Ballet Theatre in New York City. Although the performance received no NEA funding, the report blasts Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y., for securing years of funding for the ballet and for playing a dead body in a performance of “Romeo and Juliet.”
The report also highlights a legacy earmark for genetic-grape research, which, post-ban, secured $2 million in federal funding.
The full report can be viewed here .
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