In this morning's Raleigh News and Observer, U.S. Rep. David Price (4th Dist - NC) defends pork-barrel earmarks and suggests that taxpayers who don't like them should "take a deep breath."

AFP's North Carolina State Director, Dallas Woodhouse, responded quickly: 

“Congressman Price’s defense of the earmarking system shows just how out of touch he is with North Carolina’s taxpayers.  

“He claims that pork-barrel earmarks don’t lead to extra spending, but the fact is earmarks are routinely used to buy votes for bloated spending bills that would never pass if nearly every Member of Congress didn’t have a pet project in them.

“Congressman Price claims that he opposes funding for unworthy “road to nowhere” projects, yet last year he opposed all 50 proposed amendments that would have killed funding for questionable projects all over the country.  Among the projects that Congressman Price deemed worthy of North Carolinians’ tax dollars: $50,000 for a Mule and Packers Museum in California, $150,000 for the American Ballet Theater in New York City, $200,000 for a Lobster Institute in Maine, and $100,000 to build a prison museum in Kansas.  

“Are these really necessary projects that North Carolina’s hard-working taxpayers need to be funding?  Congressman Price apparently thinks so, and that shows just how out of touch is really is.”

UPDATE: 12:24 p.m.: Red Clay Citizen in North Carolina also spotlights Congressman Price's "Porcine Apologetics."