With all the histrionics, threats and impassioned speeches on the U.S. Senate floor, one might have thought that the republic itself was in jeopardy. In a long-term way, it is.

     But national survival wasn't what had legislators inflamed last week. Instead, the rhetoric became overheated when Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., violated an unwritten rule. He dared to advance a measure to trim some of his colleagues' expensive and unnecessary pet projects from a budget bill.

 

     Ground hasn't been broken yet, but the infamous "bridge to nowhere" that would connect Ketchikan, Alaska, to an offshore island where only 50 people live, appears to be indestructible. The highway bill allots $223 million for that project and $229 million for another boondoggle bridge near Anchorage. Coburn wanted to withdraw funds for the bridges and shift $75 million to rebuild a Louisiana bridge damaged by Hurricane Katrina. It should be a no-brainer that the needs of the devastated Gulf Coast are greater.

 

     Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, was personally insulted, however. Alaska, which ranks No. 1 in per capita federal spending, was being unjustly singled out, he argued. The 37-year Senate veteran threatened to resign and "be taken out of here on a stretcher" if the Senate killed off perhaps the most egregious example of wasteful spending in the massive highway bill.

 

     Senators were so moved by Stevens' sense of outrage — or the idea that their own pet projects could be next — that they voted 82-15 to keep funding the bridges. The Senate also refused to defund a $500,000 sculpture park in Seattle and $950,000 for a Nebraska museum parking facility.

 

     Those wasteful projects are only a few of the 6,371 "earmarks" legislators pushed into the transportation bill alone.

 

     Legislators are expected to fight to bring money to their districts. But Congress seems to have decided there are no limits. It funded a record number of projects this year while borrowing at hazardous levels.

 

     Eliminating all pork from the highway law would cover only 10% of the estimated $250 billion needed for Katrina and Rita recovery efforts. But cutting the worst excesses would be a valuable sign that legislators can put the national good over their own interests.

 

     With the costs of the war in Iraq, devastation from hurricanes and a national debt that has soared to $7.9 trillion, business as usual is irresponsible. If Congress isn't willing to postpone pet projects that benefit only a few, can it ever get serious about solving larger problems, such as the future of Social Security and health care, that affect the nation for generations to come?