The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. Will anyone in Congress concede it has an addiction?

Not just to spending in general but specifically to earmarks —  those pet projects doled out by lawmakers for the sole benefit of a local employer or town.

Click Here for the Fox News Taxpayer Calculator

Let’s take a look at some specific examples. Millions of taxpayer dollars were set aside for textile research in North Carolina. Hundreds of thousands of dollars went for tattoo removal in California and almost a million more for fish management in Alabama.

Some lawmakers are trying to quit the habit. House Democrats proposed a ban on earmarks this year, but only to corporations. House Republicans agreed to ban all earmarks.

How Did YOUR Senator Vote on Proposed Earmark Ban?

“I think it’s a very admirable goal for the GOP to take a complete earmark moratorium. Enforcing it is going to be an issue,” said Leslie Paige from Citizens Against Government Waste. Ultimately, she said, “it’s going to be up to taxpayers — if they don’t like it, they are going to make those feelings known to Congress.”

But guess who’s refusing to go along? The U.S. Senate — led by the two of the biggest porkers in Congress, Sens. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and Thad Cochran, R- Miss.

Last year they combined for almost $900 million in earmarks, from turtle research in Hawaii to a shellfish conference in Mississippi.

So how much did those two men cost you? Check out the taxpayer calculator on FoxNews.com.

The pie chart shows what portion of the earmarks are paid for by your  tax bracket. It then calculates how much you pay individually for the program.

So with an income of $50,000, the earmarks from these two lawmakers would cost you $4. If you’re a top earner you’ll be paying $108.

Now that may not sound like much, but remember, there are 535 members of Congress who have been doing this for years. And by a vote of 68-29, Senators have chosen to continue making earmarks.

And these are projects which, by definition, didn’t make the cut for funding through the normal budget process. All this week we’ll be calculating several different earmarks throughout the day.