PROOF WILL BE IN THE BACON: Sounds...

PROOF WILL BE IN THE BACON: Sounds preposterous, but after two centuries of taxpayer squealing, Congress may finally be swearing off pork. Or at least some of the fattier cuts. Wide-ranging denizens of Capitol Hill report a “new atmosphere” in which appropriations bills laden with Lawrence Welk museums and other pork-barrel goodies no longer will pass muster. The same, it is said, will hold for tax bills packed with tax breaks for the fat-cat few; “most of this stuff is doomed,” a House leadership aide avers. . . . Credit for the alleged reform mood goes to several forces: Democratic newcomers’ crusade for change, Ross Perot’s relentless pot shots against waste and Republican lawmakers’ double-time scrutiny of money and tax bills. . . . The first sign of change came with President Clinton’s $16.3-billion economic stimulus package. True, Republicans yelped about $1.5 million earmarked for the Fish and Wildlife Service to produce fish atlases under the Endangered Species Act--and $5 million that Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., says it may spend from a community development block grant for a parking garage on the beach. But in reality, the bill was remarkably free of such pork.