Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has released their “Pig Book” for 2008, which is an pilation of the pork-barrel projects in the federal budget. The 2008 Pig Book identified 11,610 projects at a cost of $17.2 billion in the 12 Appropriations Acts for fiscal 2008. A ‘pork’ project is a line-item in an appropriations bill that designates tax dollars for a specific purpose in circumvention of established budgetary procedures.”

According to CAGW, “despite last year’s ethics and lobbying ‘reform,’ pork-barrel earmarks – the currency of corruption in Washington, D.C. – are alive and well.”

Senators of note (PDF):

Clinton: 281 projects, $296.2 million

Levin, Carl: 255 projects, $301.4 million

McCain: 0 projects, $0.0 million

Obama: 53 projects, $97.4 million

Stabenow: 220 projects, $232.5 million