Pork has costs beyond the money. It has also built a nest of federal rules and bureaucracy designed to disperse that pork, and is leading to some absurd results in Cleveland: The feds want to tear down LeBron James on the eve of the NBA Finals.
Says the AP:
The massive banner — an ad for shoemaker Nike Inc. — hangs on the side of a building near Quicken Loans Arena, and violates federal highway beautification standards, said Lindsay Komlanc, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Transportation.
….Komlanc said the banner is too big — federal rules require it to be under 1,200-square feet. The state agency must enforce the guidelines or risk losing 10 percent of federal highway funding, which is about $130 million a year for Ohio, she said.
….The state has sent letters to the banner’s owner, Gigantic Media, asking the company to reduce the banner’s size or take it down, Komlanc said. Legal action is a possibility, she said.
Governor Strickland is intervening to oppose any further state action against the ad, but think about it: the Feds are claiming a say in the size of an ad on a building in Cleveland. That’s the best argument against pork I’ve yet to see.