(excerpted from)

                             THE LIBERATOR ONLINE
                                       
   May 18, 1999
   Vol. 4, No. 10
   Circulation: 28,239 in 78 countries
   http://www.self-gov.org/liberator/maintain.html


Politicians Turn War Spending Into Pork-Barrel Frenzy

   Recently the U.S. Senate began discussion of "emergency spending
   legislation" supposedly to continue funding for the U.S.-led air
   strikes on Yugoslavia.

   In classic fashion, however, the Senate took the opportunity to stick
   all sorts of utterly unrelated spending measures onto the bill. The
   bill quickly became a bi-partisan pork barrel bonanza, as senators
   rushed to use the war legislation to grab goodies for pet
   constituencies, at taxpayers' expense.

   Some examples:
     * Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) wanted $1 billion in guaranteed loans
       that would benefit just three U.S. steel companies -- one of which
       happens to be the Weirton Steel Company in West Virginia.
     * Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), chairman of the Senate Budget
       Committee, called for $500 million for oil and gas interests in
       the Southwest.
     * Senators Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) asked for for
       $4.3 billion for Midwestern farmers in the form of crop subsidies
       and loan guarantees.
     * Senators Bob Graham (D-FL) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) are
       trying to ensure that states can spend the $246 billion extorted
       from tobacco companies last fall on whatever they want -- instead
       of on anti-smoking campaigns for young people, as originally
       promised.
     * President Clinton called for up to $1 billion in aid for Central
       American victims of Hurricane Mitch, and another $100 million in
       foreign aid for Jordan.
       
   "Under the guise of helping the military, opportunistic politicians
   are helping themselves by funneling money to their favorite special
   interest groups," said Steve Dasbach, national director of the
   Libertarian Party. "As this bill proves, war isn't just another
   government program to Senate Republicans and Democrats -- it's just
   another pork-barrel government program.

   "This bill demonstrates that for politicians, war is a four letter
   word -- spelled P-O-R-K."

   (From a Libertarian Party media release)