Woody Allen, in the character of Alvy Singer, recalled the joke of two women talking at a mountain resort.

One said to the other, “Boy, the food at this place is really terrible.”

The other replied, “Yeah, I know, and such small portions.”

That line from “Annie Hall,” now 32 years old, has some staying power when it comes to Americans’ relationship to their government.

Budget-conscious folks holler with some regularity about federal spending so grossly exceeding gathered revenues.

If the United States ordained a national fluid, it would be red ink.

But for all the distress caused by uncontrolled outlays, for all the consternation touched off by millions spent studying the reproductive habits of crawly things or bridges that puddle-jump for the benefit of a few, sins get forgiven when wind blows the money a certain way.

Which is to say, our way.

Pork barrel spending is just wasteful when sent to South Carolina or North Dakota or New Hampshire. But the same money becomes a wise and reasonable investment when given a local place to land.

In Buchanan County, where Barack Obama won by less than half a percentage point in November’s election, opponents’ bumper-sticker venom attaches a socialism label to the new president. His economic stimulus program, with its billions aimed at goosing the national economy, gets tagged as budget-abusing extravagance.

When a stimulus award came before the St. Joseph City Council last week, one that promised $475,000 in funds with no matching obligations, one characterized as free money that would go somewhere else if not here, the governing body voted it down.

And the public offered this critique: “Are you crazy?”

A later moment of clarity put the council in a position to vote again on the issue, but not before local judgment shone on the good manners of accepting a gift of dollars.

Around the time the council had second thoughts, the U.S. Government Accountability Office came out with a report on our nation’s efforts to rebuild Iraq.

The price tag on that, according to the report, stands at $49 billion, not counting the money spent to destroy some of what we’re now fixing.

Taxpayers ponied up for two agencies figuring prominently in the report, the Provincial Reconstruction Development Committee and the Agency for International Development’s National Capacity Development.

Despite the enormous expenditures, the reconstruction committee had no program manager until last month, nor a performance monitoring system.

One example cited had U.S. tax dollars going to equip administrative courtrooms for Iraqis to settle government contract disputes. The contractor was to get $165 million over three years. Modifications in the contract increased the amount to $339 million.

We are trying to set a good example.

The Iraqis committed their own money for development projects. In 2008, that nation spent 2 percent of the budgeted amount.

We should probably follow their example.

Maybe they know the joke about bad food and small portions ... without attributing it to Woody Allen.

Ken Newton’s column runs on Sunday and Tuesday.