The number of “earmarks” – funding for politicians’ pet projects – grew eightfold from 1994 to 2006, with 15,500 earmarks costing $64 billion in 2006.

See: Congressional Research Service, “Earmarks in Appropriations Acts: FY 1994, FY 1996, FY 1998, FY 2000, FY 2002, FY 2004, FY 2005,” January 26, 2006, http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/m012606.pdf [1]; “Bush to Request Billions for Wars,” The Washington Post, February 3, 2007; and George Will, “A Loss’s Silver Lining,” The Washington Post, November 9, 2006.