This vital mission, however, is being hamstrung by many members of Congress who find it difficult to distinguish between pork barrels and gun barrels.

On August 5, 2004, for instance, President Bush signed into law a $416 billion appropriations bill for the U.S. Department of Defense. Most Americans assumed that the money would be used to provide for the needs of our troops, which would in turn make America safer.

Congress had different plans. They loaded up the appropriations bill with $8.9 billion worth of amendments bankrolling pork projects around the country. Consider a few that were deemed more important than combat readiness:

• $25,000 for Las Vegas schools to study mariachi music.

• $75,000 for Wisconsin’s Paper Industry Hall of Fame.

• $100,000 for the Punxsutawney Weather Discovery Center Museum, home of the groundhog.

• $1 million for brown tree snakes, found only in Guam and nonlife threatening to humans.

This sort of reckless spending is an embarrassment to our country and an affront to our troops. Unfortunately, it’s just one example of domestic politics trumping the safety of Americans.

Consider homeland security funding.

According to a Time magazine report, as of March 2004, Washington had spent more than $13 billion to help states and communities deal with terrorists, but that the “vast majority” of that money had been distributed “with no regard for the threats, vulnerabilities and potential consequences faced by each region.”

As usual, Congress is to blame. They passed a law requiring that almost 40 percent of federal antiterrorism funds be divided equally among the states and territories. The rest would be distributed according to a state’s percentage of the national population.

Here’s the upshot of that grand plan: Wyoming receives approximately $37.74 per capita while California and New York receive less than $5.50. Moreover, low risk localities like Wyoming often use anti-terrorism funding to pay for unrelated projects that do little to actually protect America.

Such a practice does not make America safer. In fact, it leaves us more vulnerable to terrorist attacks on major population centers—a terrorist’s holy grail.

But if Ronald Reagan taught us anything, it is that peace comes through strength. For America, that strength comes in the ability to defend our nation, to pursue our interests at home and abroad. Accordingly, every dollar we spend to increase that strength—that safety— must be spent wisely. In the face of a growing terrorist threat, we simply cannot afford to have members of Congress allocating national defense resources to pay for mariachi music classes or a new dump truck.

In the end, the only way to get America right is to keep her safe.