Executive Branch Pork?

Our good friend MADISON wrote in again:

Do you agree that this represents pork barrel spending by the executive branch at the same time they are taking a public stance against pork?

[Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link]

And this list covers a mere two month period. They may be good programs IF we were flushed with money and not continuing to increase the debt load on future generaions. In the mean time they are nice payoffs to make an administration look good.

Generally speaking, I concur with this assessment. Most of these are grants of one sort or another and the only legitimate argument that I can come up to justify this spending is if people in these areas of the country lost their jobs due to government regulation and need to be re-educated in a different field.

I don't know if this sort of spending can technically be classified as "pork" but it certainly is questionable spending in a time of deficit.