“In large part,” Utt writes, “this escalation in the number of earmarks reflects the growing number of lobbyists offering to obtain them for a fee. As the number of earmarks increases with each passing year, the business attracts more lobbyists who apply more pressure on Congress to spend more on pork bar¬rel spending.” In short, you have a vicious circle.

So it was gratifying to see lawmakers actually take some steps recently to rein in pork. A supplemental spending bill intended to provide funding for Iraq and the war on terrorism, as well as to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, was up for debate. But what else was in the Senate version? Some $700 million to relocate a working railroad in Mississippi a few miles north. A $4 billion farm bailout and $594 million in highway spending. And the Senate would have spent $1.14 billion on the fisheries and seafood industries affected by Katrina, and $20 million for AmeriCorps.

But Heritage and other conservative commentators, including several key blogs, were on the case, highlighting this so-called “emergency” funding. President Bush made a strong veto threat on anything that rose above his target amount of $94.5 billion. Then, as if to prove how utterly addicted they are to pork, some lawmakers floated the idea of an across-the-board cut -- one that would have cut funding not only for the pork but for our troops.

Fortunately, some brave lawmakers quashed this notion, and the bill that emerged from conference stayed within the president’s limit. The “railroad to nowhere”? Gone. The farm bailout? Scaled back to $500 million. The $594 million in highway funds? Left by the side of the road. The money for fisheries was chopped down to $118 million, and the amount for AmeriCorps was halved. Not perfect, but quite an improvement.

Yet we have much further to go if such victories are to become the norm. That’s why The Heritage Foundation supports fundamental budget reform: The current budget process, according to Heritage’s Brian Riedl, is designed to maximize spending. The result: today’s unaffordable spending sprees.

“The federal government last year spent a peacetime-record $23,760 per household,” Riedl says. “Adjusted for inflation, that’s the most since World War II. Who believes they’re getting $23,760 worth for what they’re paying?”

Who, indeed?