Along with farm subsidies, shipbuilding subsidies and harbor projects, another well-intentioned federal-aid program can be added to the long list of those that have degenerated into pork-barrel giveaways. It is the black-lung program, which is financed by the U.S. taxpayer. Designed to compensate the families of coal miners, dead or alive, who were victims of the debilitating coal-dust disease, the program has become a much-abused boondoggle.
The first black-lung bill was signed in 1969, but eligibility requirements were so severe that last year the President and Congress got together on a liberalizing...