Suie Pig!

To Quote President Ronald Reagan"I haven't seen this much lard since I handed out blue ribbons at the Iowa State Fair."

It is fitting that the president is signing this legislation in Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert's district, Keith Ashdown, vice president of policy for Taxpayers for Common Sense said, "because the speaker's district has the third highest amount of highway pork in the nation."

The bill contains more than 6,371 special projects valued at more than $24 billion , or about 9 percent of the bill's total cost, he said. The distribution of the money for these projects "is based far more on political clout than on transportation need," Ashdown said.

Sen. John McCain, one of four senators who opposed the bill, said the estimated $24 billion lawmakers directed to special projects was "egregious." He has cited dozens of what he calls "interesting" projects. His favorite: $2.3 million for landscaping along the Ronald Reagan Freeway in California.

"I wonder what Ronald Reagan would say?" McCain asked about the fiscally conservative president.