Iowa: Pork spending, pork smells

Congressional earmarks -- usually called pork-barrel spending -- are a big, easy target. Anyone who wants to find fault with Big Government and excessive federal spending need look no further than spending bills filled with pet projects sanctioned by a U.S. representative or a U.S. senator.

One bull's-eye in the most recent earmark-filled spending bill sent to the White House for President Obama's signature is a $1.7 million item to cover the cost of researching pig odor in Iowa.

Stop laughing. If you've ever been to Iowa on a hot summer day, you can see why this is important. Perhaps you didn't know that there 3 million Iowans -- and 20 million hogs. You do the smelly math.

Now, what about those earmarks? Most of us would agree that a big chunk of designated spending is for projects that are needed. Like a bridge or sewers or water treatment. More questionable are earmarks like the one for tattoo removal for Los Angeles gang members. Surely there's a good explanation for that one.

Back to the pig-odor funding: For anyone living in Iowa, studying ways to control offensive smells probably doesn't seem like an unreasonable project.

What may be unreasonable, however, is expecting U.S. taxpayers to foot the bill. The smell issue has, according to an Associated Press story, been a perennial topic in the Iowa Legislature. Good. That's where it should be an issue. Surely Iowans can come up with a way to deal with pig odor. Sounds like a great project for university students -- Iowa's university students.