New budget buys the President a boat.

The new budget passed this weekend (344-51 in the House, and 65-30 in the Senate). Included in that budget, along with all the necessary items like paying for Social Security and “funding” the No Child Left Behind initiative, were several items of, shall we say, dubious need. Among them,”$2 million for the government to buy back the presidential yacht USS Sequoia, sold in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter to demonstrate frugality.”

Yes, our “fiscally conservative” President and Congress have spent $2 million to buy a boat.

But wait, that’s not the end of the story, as USA Today notes. The budget includes a total of 11,772 “special projects” totaling $15.8 billion in extra spending. Some highlights? From that USA Today article:

  • $25,000 for the study of mariachi music in Nevada’s Clark County School District.
    $225,000 for the National Wild Turkey Federation in South Carolina.
    $1 million for the Missouri Pork Producers Federation to convert animal waste into energy.
    $75,000 for renovating the Merry Go Round Playhouse in Auburn, N.Y.
    $100,000 for a weather museum in Punxsutawney, Pa.
    $800,000 for “soybean rust research” in Ames, Iowa.
    $75,000 for “hides and leather research” in Wyndmoor, Pa.
    $1,593 for potato storage in Madison, Wis.
    $1 million for a world birding center, Texas.
    $150,000 to pay for beaver management and damage in Wisconsin.
    $200,000 for the American Cotton Museum in Greenville, Texas.
    $100,000 for a swimming pool in Ottawa, Kan.
    $70,000 for a “Paper Industry International Hall of Fame” in Appleton, Wis.
    $1.5 million for the Rep. Richard Gephardt Archive at the Missouri Historical Society.

$1 million to convert hog waste into energy in Missouri?

Talk about your pork.