There was good news from Washington this week for manure handlers and duck hunters in Mississippi, grasshopper researchers in Alaska, lettuce geneticists in California and peanut and onion researchers in Georgia.
These lucky people are among those getting a slice from the "pork barrel" that rolls down Capitol Hill every year when Congress passes the budget.
Everyone righteously deplores the system whereby the politicians slip their favourite spending projects back home into the one and a half trillion dollar budget, but it still goes on and this year was no exception.
It was actually easier this year for the senators and congress members to get their "pork" because the budget passed amid chaotic scenes where nobody was sure what was being approved. The final 4,000-page "omnibus" Bill weighed 40 lbs and was two feet thick.
Even Senator Robert Byrd, who has become a legend for the number of roads and bridges he has called after him in his native West Virginia, balked at the "gargantuan monstrosity" he called this year's budget. He said on Tuesday he would "hold his nose" and vote for it.
But the next day he told the Senate: "I made such a good speech last night that I convinced myself to vote against it." He added: "There's no living person who knows everything that's in this Bill."
The widely experienced Senator Daniel Moynihan complained that the budget was produced in "a kind of bastard parliamentary system" with the decisions made by just a few negotiators from the Republicans and Democrats.
In Ireland, the government of the day agrees the Budget at Cabinet meetings, brings it to the Dail and rams it through, perhaps taking the odd amendment as a sop to the opposition. There is thus no scope for bargaining.
The US system of separation of powers could not be more different. The White House, as the executive, draws up its plan for the coming year's federal government expenditure and sends it to Congress. It is Congress, as the legislative branch, which will have to vote on it.
But far from approving what the President wants, Congress sets about drawing up its own budget in the form of appropriations to cover 13 spending areas.
It helps if the President's party also controls Congress as then the White House and the law-makers can work closely and do trade-offs.
But this outgoing Congress has Republican majorities in both Houses which have very different ideas from the Democrats on how to spend taxpayers' money.
To make it more complicated, the Republicans themselves are split between conservatives demanding tax cuts and less spending and moderates unwilling to see the slashing of publicly-funded projects.
Republicans also calculated that President Clinton was so weakened by the Monica Lewinsky scandal and impeachment process that he would give Congress most of what it wanted. This was a big mistake, because none of the spending Bills can become law until the President signs them - in other words he has a veto.
With time running out, there were eight spending Bills for about $500 billion still to be approved when the new fiscal year started on October 1st. To prevent a government shut-down, temporary spending resolutions kept money flowing to pay salaries while the haggling went on in the smoke-filled rooms and the pork barrel in the corner was gradually emptied.
The Republicans realised that they had miscalculated again and underestimated the political skills of the President.
Four years ago the Republicans defied the White House on the budget and there was a government shutdown which badly damaged Speaker Newt Gingrich and his conservative Young Turks. They swore never to allow this to happen again.
Incidentally, it was during this shutdown when White House interns were keeping things going that Monica Lewinsky had her first fateful encounter with Mr Clinton near the Oval Office.
This year the Republicans were determined to avoid the shutdown trap. But they lost their nerve when faced with a veto from a President, who had survived the intended knock-out blow of the Starr Report.
The result was that exhausted members of Congress rushed through $500 billion in expenditure while campaigning to keep their seats in the election in two weeks' time.
Naturally both sides claimed victory. But the Republicans are furious at how they have been outsmarted as the President claims the high moral ground for the money he won for 10,000 extra teachers, for vital funding for the International Monetary Fund and to combat global warming.
The International Fund for Ireland got another annual instalment of $19.6 million as well.
The conservative Republicans who used to regard Newt Gingrich as their hero are now criticising his ineptitude in handling the budget in the House of Representatives. He has snapped back at his former disciples, calling them "petty dictators" and "perfectionists" who had to learn the give-and-take of real politics.
"Surely those of us who have grown up and matured in this process understand after the last four years we have to work together on big issues," Mr Gingrich declared.
A not-so-big issue was the prohibition in the Bill against introducing wolves and grizzly bears into Idaho and Montana. Of course it could be a big issue if you ran into a grizzly while trekking in Montana. Thanks to the budget you should be safe.