Pork Alert - Cash 170 miles from earthquake

Beef and dairy farmers got checks for damage that didn't occur 170 miles from the 2002 Nisqually Earthquake in Puget Sound. KOMO News in Seattle reports:

Jim Zwiers lives 170 miles away from the epicenter in Lynden. In 2001, he owned a dairy farm. He got an application form for a federal payment and thought it was a joke, until his son convinced him to mail it in.

Asked if he suffered any any damage from the earthquake he replied, "I don't even know if we even felt the earthquake." But he says he got a check and cashed it.

This is a standard pork technique. The politicians in Congress make a very broad definition for the area affected by a natural disaster, then give benefits to everyone in the artificially defined area. Then the bureaucrats write checks. "But I shouldn't get a check; I had no damage," the beneficiary says. "Congress says you get it; I am doing my job. If I don't give you this check I am violating an act of Congress."

This one has a different form. The governor of Washington asked the president to declare every affected county a "disaster." Gary Locke was then governor and this shows how he performed on an intelligence test. President Bush believed Locke and declared every county on Locke's list a disaster including Whatcom County on the border with Canada.

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