{"product_id":"9780312343576","title":"The Pig Book: How Government Wastes Your Money","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe federal government wastes your tax dollars worse than a drunken sailor on shore leave. The 1984 Grace Commission uncovered that the Department of Defense spent $640 for a toilet seat and $436 for a hammer. Twenty years later things weren't much better. In 2004, Congress spent a record-breaking $22.9 billion dollars of your money on 10,656 of their pork-barrel projects. The war on terror has a lot to do with the record $413 billion in deficit spending, but it's also the result of pork over the last 18 years the likes of:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- $50 million for an indoor rain forest in Iowa\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- $102 million to study screwworms which were long ago eradicated from American soil\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- $273,000 to combat goth culture in Missouri\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- $2.2 million to renovate the North Pole (Lucky for Santa!)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- $50,000 for a tattoo removal program in California\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- $1 million for ornamental fish research\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFunny in some instances and jaw-droppingly stupid and wasteful in others, \u003ci\u003eThe Pig Book\u003c\/i\u003e proves one thing about Capitol Hill: pork is king!\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"St. Martin's Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47010010923248,"sku":"9780312343576","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780312343576_p0.jpg?v=1763676893","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780312343576","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}