Boston's infamous Big Dig, the costliest highway project in U.S. history, was supposed to cost a mere $2.8 billion but, according to the Boston Globe, will end up costing $22 billion and won't be paid off until 2038. It was designed to replace an elevated highway so the area would be less ugly. In other words, it was not really pork but "local revitalization." (As Barney Frank once asked, "Rather than lower the expressway, wouldn't it be cheaper to raise the city?")

Sparta, N.C., got $500,000 in federal tax dollars for a teapot museum a couple of years ago. Some thought that was an evil earmark, but North Carolina politicians said it was "local revitalization."