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Pork barrel, or simply pork, is a metaphor for the appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to direct expenditures to a representative's district. The usage originated in American English , and it indicates a negotiated way of political particularism .
Earmarks have often been treated as being synonymous with "pork barrel" legislation. [28] Despite considerable overlap, [29] the two are not the same: what constitutes an earmark is an objective determination, while what is "pork-barrel" spending is subjective. [30] One legislator's "pork" is another's vital project. [31] [32]
Some politicians take a hard-line stance against pork and have worked to eliminate pork from Congress. [citation needed] An early-21st-century example of attempted pork barrel spending was the Gravina Island Bridge, a proposed Alaska bridge which attracted so much national attention as a "bridge to nowhere" that the earmark for it was removed.
President Obama wants the ability to trim congressional pork barrel spending as part of new legislation he introduced Monday. The so-called "Reduce Unnecessary Spending Act of 2010" would allow ...
The law garnered a large amount of bipartisan support, though support was not unanimous, particularly among those who believed it to be laden with too much pork barrel spending. Early versions of the bill budgeted over $300 billion, but President Bush promised to veto any surface transportation bill costing more than $256 billion.
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pork barrel legislation or patronage: acts of government that blatantly favor powerful special interest groups. rider that attaches something new or unrelated to an existing bill. sunset clause to prevent legislation from being permanent. a trigger law that will automatically "spring" into effect once some other variable occurs.
Porkbusters was an effort led by mostly conservative and libertarian bloggers to cut pork barrel spending by the U.S. Congress used to help pay for projects. The effort was launched on September 18, 2005, [ 1 ] after the massive scale of the reconstruction effort necessary for the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina had become apparent.