Pork in transportation....

The Catao Institute looks at some of the pork in the $284 billion highway transportation bill.

ow is a museum like a highway?

Answer: Both get lots of money in the "highway bill" that Congress is currently debating.

And not just one museum, either. The massive $284 billion spending bill includes $3 million for the National Packard Museum in Warren, Ohio, where the Packard automobile was first produced. There's also $1.5 million for the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., and $400,000 for the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse, N.Y.

At least those museums have something to do with transportation, though that doesn't quite explain why they should be paid for by federal income taxpayers. But there's money for three children's museums in the bill, as well, including $14 million for the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. Why are taxpayers in California and Texas and Massachusetts paying for a museum in Indianapolis?

The porkbarrel projects in this bill don't stop with museums, of course. Members of Congress have loaded the bill with some 4,000 special projects for their states and districts—free money, it seems, that the senators and representatives can boast about back home. It's Christmas in May.

Even the transportation projects don't seem to have much national purpose. Perhaps the most egregious item is $125 million for a bridge linking Gravina Island to the town of Ketchikan in Alaska. According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, federal taxpayers will eventually pay $315 million for this bridge. Here's the deal: Ketchikan is a town of 8,000 people (13,000 in the whole county, and population is declining). Its airport is on the nearby Gravina Island. Right now you have to take a 7-minute ferry ride from the airport to the town. To save people that 7-minute ride, Alaska wants to build a $315 million bridge.

But even if Alaska wants to do it, why should Congress pay for it? Maybe because Alaska's congressman, Don Young, is chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Young managed to squeeze $722 million for Alaska into the bill.

There's more....