Obama on pork

Barrack Obama recently had a piece in the Chicago Tribune on how to cut pork. His motivation is to ease the burden of rebuilding New Orleans, but lots of people think pork should be cut anyway. It is an interesting read because he gets gets quite specific about what he would do and where his priorities are.

To cut $50 billion ... put a two-year moratorium on all pet projects and other local spending.

defer projects such as the $10 billion mission to Mars

eliminate unnecessary business subsidies.

drop funding that gives private companies extra incentives to participate in the new Medicare drug program

increasing the rebates that brand-name drug manufacturers owe [Medicare].

Others ... have pointed to Alaska's "Bridge to Nowhere" as a wasteful project ... it's wrong to single out one state's pork project ... let's eliminate all pork projects in all states.

we could postpone a planned tax break for millionaires

roll back one of the tax cuts for those who make an income of more than $2 million per year.