Most outrageous earmarks

When the U.S. government starts throwing around hundreds of billions of dollars in the hope of getting the economy going, you can bet someone will find a way to get rich quick. By the time the first stimulus bill made its way through Congress, all kinds of odd businesses and organizations found their way on to the public payroll.

Time sifted through all the verbiage and got right to the pork. Here’s their list of the most outrageous earmarks from the October, 2008 stimulus package:

1. $2 million for children’s wooden arrow makers

2. $1.9 million for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service

3. $1 million for the New York Woodstock Museum

4. $192 million for the U.S. Territories’ rum industries

5. $188,000 for the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine

6. $98,000 to develop a walking tour of Boydton, Va.

7. $50,000 for the National Mule and Packers Museum in Bishop, Calif.

8. $583,000 for the Montana World Trade Center

9. $460,752 for beer ingredient

10. $150,000 for Rat Island

If that isn’t enough to make your blood boil, check out more details, and a slideshow, at Time.

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