Another example of waste and abuse

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - What does $10 million in Congressional pork buy? Lots of bureaucrats and a pat on the back from constituents, instead of a kick somewhere farther south. The [Raleigh] 'News-Observer' reports that an earmark pushed by Rep. David Price (D-NC) intended, supposedly, to increase services to North Carolinian National Guard families has spent $7.3 million over the last five years and helped next to no one — except bureaucrats and Price’s hometown university:

In 2004, U.S. Rep. David Price inserted a $10 million program into the federal budget, sending the money to UNC-Chapel Hill for a new effort to help deployed soldiers of the National Guard and Army Reserves.

Five years later, the Citizen Soldier Support Program has spent $7.3 million, but the money has accomplished little for the people it was supposed to help. One-quarter of the money has gone to the university for overhead, and a large part of the rest has been spent on well-paid consultants, six-figure salaries and travel.

Half of the eight full-time employees are paid more than $100,000 a year, including a deputy director who has been reimbursed $76,000 for food, travel and lodging when she commutes from her home in northern Virginia to North Carolina.

An internal review found that the program produced reams of paperwork but few concrete results.