Chris Voccio for Pennsylvania

In this week’s Parade magazine (found in today’s Tribune-Democrat), there’s a brief report (”Congress’ Pork Overload”) on some recent earmark craziness.

• $213,000 for olive fruit fly research
• $1.9 million for the Center for Grape Genetics
• $2.5 million for fish-waste research

This is all nonsense, right? How can this happen?

Well, it’s all very simple, and it makes perfect sense. We cheer when our legislators (federal and state) get us handouts that sound crazy to people who live in the rest of the U.S. or in the rest of Pennsylvania.

The only way to stop this nonsense is to send legislators to D.C. and to Harrisburg who will criticize this process AND resist the temptation to fight for crazy pork projects for their districts.

Sure, there’s a role for government and our legislators need to make sure we get our share of legitimate appropriations.

But when our legislators go to Harrisburg, something like this happens: The reps from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh (and Scranton, and Erie, and Allentown, and State College, and … well, you get the point) promise to vote for some handouts for Johnstown. The Johnstown rep, eager to please his constituents, smiles and says “great!” Then the reps from the rest of the state explain that the way to get the handouts is to vote for their handouts.

Folks, we need to put a stop to this. They’re bribing us, with our money!