Citizens Against Government Waste released its 2015 Congressional Pig Book last Wednesday, and the promising news is that the number of earmarks dropped from 109 in 2014 to 105 in 2015.

The bad news is that the cost jumped 55.6 percent from $2.7 billion in earmarks in 2014 to $4.2 billion in pork for 2015.CAGW, the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement in government, found wasteful pork in at least 12 appropriations bills.CAGW President Tom Schatz said the new Pig Book proves once again that any earmark is a bad earmark, and that taxpayers should deliver a clear message that it's time to permanently ban the practice.He has plenty of ammunition to support his claim in the The Pig Book, which included $4 million for "fish passage and fish screens" appropriated through the Energy Department; $1 million for "Embryo Adoption Awareness Campaign" through the Department of Health and Human Services; $4 million for an "aquatic plant control" program; and a $5 million earmark for "abstinence education."The Department of Defense was represented with a $120 million expenditure to upgrade the M1 Abrams tank, which the Army does not want.Schatz said that more than 2,000 M1s are parked in a California desert and the Pentagon would rather design the next generation of tanks than upgrade the M1.During 2008-2010, the three years in which members of Congress were required to identify their earmark requests, Senate Appropriations Committee member and Washington Democrat Patty Murray added 575 earmarks costing taxpayers $779.5 million.A pet project of Murray's is $15 million for the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund.Sen. Pat Toomey was at Wednesday's press conference in Phoenix to discuss the wasteful spending, along with fellow Republican Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake of Arizona, Joni Ernst of Iowa, and Tom McClintock of California.Toomey has introduced legislation to permanently ban earmarks, but his colleagues favor extending a moratorium as part of their rules instead.He acknowledged it's difficult to completely eliminate government waste since in the past, it was simply in the DNA of Congress to engage in as much pork spending as possible.For taxpayers who must fund the projects, there are far too many pages of pork in the Pig Book.By JIM ZBICKtneditor@tnonline.com