A worthy endeavor to cut the fat

Truth Laid Bear, home of the Ecosystem, is coordinating efforts from the blogosphere to highlight government programs that could be cut, in order to help finance the rebuilding of New Orleans.

Hurricane Katrina is just the catalyst fiscally conservative Congressmen could use to restore financial sanity to Congress. I can see where the fear would originate in cutting a pork program that benefits one's district; it would seem to guarantee a vote against you from each affected person come the next election. (As an aside, with gerrymandered districts, is this a significant enough issue to matter?) Tell someone "We're cutting the funding for your boll weevil research," and you'll anger the 12 people employed by the venture. Tell someone "We're cutting the funding for your boll weevil research so that we can help the victims of Hurricane Katrina," and it's hard to imagine many people being angry.