From the mid '70s until his retirement in 1988, Democratic Wisconsin Senator William Proxmire gave out a yearly award that he termed "The Golden Fleece." The fleece was designed to highlight the most outrageous examples of pork-barrel spending, Washington style, that Proxmire could find every year. Several recipients were:
¥ The federal government once awarded some $102,000 to a group called the National Institute on alcohol to study the effects of tequila and gin on sunfish.
¥ Congressional leaders on the Hill once OK'd a meager $2,500 to the National Endowment for the Humanities to finance an exhaustive study of why people lie and cheat on tennis courts.
¥ Washington provided no less than $500,000 to the National Science Foundation to study why rats, monkeys and people clench their teeth.
Source: The Book of Presidential lists.
09-17-98
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