Iowa Pork Forest and Presidential Politics

Remember the infamous Iowa Rainforest project?



From Iowa Pork Forest comes this David Yepsen column with advice for presidential aspirant Governor Tom Vilsack:

Gov. Tom Vilsack penned a recent essay for the Wall Street Journal to offer his advice for dealing with the nation's budget woes.

The Democratic chief executive, who'd like to be president, should practice what he preaches. If he doesn't like federal "pork," he could offer to give back some of Iowa's.

Vilsack chastised "runaway" federal spending due to the war in Iraq and the spending on hurricane reconstruction. To balance the national budget, he suggested four things: Declare war on pork, end corporate welfare, cut oil and gas subsidies and trim government waste...

...Vilsack needs to be consistent to win the presidency. So, he should:

• Give back some of Iowa's pork. Offer to give back to the federal government the $50 million Iowa got to build a rainforest in Coralville. No one else seems to be putting any money into the $150 million-plus project. It's become a source of naysaying and ridicule around the country. There's now talk of trying to bring it back to Des Moines or having the state help pay for part of it. So return the money. (It would also net him tons of great publicity in the big-city media he's
courting.)...