Pork, pork, pork, pork, pork, and pork

Daily Kos -- This redistribution of federal tax dollars from Democratic to Republican areas has been going on for years. Some disparity in pork spending between the parties is to be expected; in 1994, when the Democrats last controlled both chambers of Congress, districts represented by Democrats received an average of $35 million more federal expenditures than districts represented by Republicans. But the Republicans have turned the typical distribution of pork from the trough into a grotesquery; Republican districts now receive an average of $612 million more than Democratic districts, even after adjusting for inflation.

Gore states receive an average of $0.87 in federal spending for every dollar of federal taxes they contributed to the treasury, while Bush states receive $1.12 for every federal tax dollar they contribute--and it's getting worse. Between 1992 and 2002 34 states saw an increase in federal expenditures in relation to taxes contributed. (Much of this burden was born by two states--California's ratio went from $0.93 per dollar of taxes in 1992 to $0.76 per dollar in 2002, and Massachusetts went from $1.01 to $0.75.)