Pork barrel

{{Short description|Political tactic}} {{Distinguish|Pork belly}} {{Globalize|article|Western culture|date=January 2025| 2name=the United States}} {{Use American English|date=June 2024}} [[File:Pork barrel cartoon.jpg|thumb|1917 cartoon from the ''New York World'']] '''''Pork barrel''''', or simply '''''pork''''', is a metaphor for allocating government spending to localized projects in the representative's district or for securing direct expenditures primarily serving the sole interests of the representative. The usage originated in American English, and it indicates a negotiated way of political particularism.

==Political science== Scholars use ''pork barrel'' as a technical term regarding legislative control of local appropriations.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bickers|first1=Kenneth N.|last2=Stein|first2=Robert M.|year=2008|title=The Congressional Pork Barrel in a Republican Era|journal=The Journal of Politics|volume=62|issue=4|pages=1070–1086|doi=10.1111/0022-3816.00046|jstor=2647865|s2cid=154556676}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Shepsle|first1=Kenneth A.|last2=Weingast|first2=Barry R.|year=1981|title=Political Preferences for the Pork Barrel: A Generalization|journal=American Journal of Political Science|volume=25|issue=1|pages=96–111|doi=10.2307/2110914|jstor=2110914}}</ref> In election campaigns, the term is used in derogatory fashion to attack opponents. Typically, "pork" involves national funding for government programs whose economic or service benefits are concentrated in a particular area but whose costs are spread among all taxpayers. Public works projects, certain national defense spending projects, and agricultural subsidies are the most commonly cited examples. Citizens Against Government Waste, a fiscally conservative advocacy group, outlines seven criteria by which spending in the United States can be classified as "pork":<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reports_pigbook2006|title=Citizens Against Government Waste|year=2006|publisher=Cagw.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080714103840/http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reports_pigbook2006|archive-date=July 14, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref> # Requested by only one chamber of Congress # Not specifically authorized # Not competitively awarded # Not requested by the President # Greatly exceeds the President's budget request or the previous year's funding # Not the subject of Congressional hearings # Serves only a local or special interest.

==History and etymology== thumb|Pork barrels delivered by pack mule (1861) In the absence of refrigeration, pork can be preserved by salting it in a barrel. The term ''pork barrel politics'' originated in American English,<ref>{{cite web |last=Drudge |first=Michael W. |date=1 August 2008 |title='Pork Barrel' Spending Emerging as Presidential Campaign Issue |url=http://www.america.gov/st/elections08-english/2008/August/20080801181504lcnirellep0.1261713.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080908001417/http://www.america.gov/st/elections08-english/2008/August/20080801181504lcnirellep0.1261713.html |archive-date=8 September 2008 |access-date=14 August 2010 |website=America.gov |publisher=United States Department of State}}</ref> and usually refers to spending intended to benefit constituents of a politician in return for their political support, either in the form of campaign contributions or votes. In the popular 1863 story "The Children of the Public", Edward Everett Hale used the term ''pork barrel'' as a homely metaphor for any form of public spending to the citizenry;<ref>The story first appeared in ''Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper,'' Jan. 24 and Jan. 31, 1863. {{Cite journal | last = Hale | first = Edward Everett | author-link = Edward Everett Hale | newspaper= Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper|title = The Children of the Public | volume = The Man without a Country and Other Tales | pages = 97–175 | year = 1910 | publisher = Macmillan}}</ref> however, after the American Civil War, the term came to be used in a derogatory sense. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' dates the modern sense of the term to 1910.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oed.com/dictionary/pork-barrelling_n?tab=factsheet#10419806|title=Oxford English Dictionary|access-date=2024-08-26 }}</ref> By the 1870s, references to "pork" were common in Congress, and the term was further popularized by a 1919 article by Chester Collins Maxey in the ''National Municipal Review'', which reported on certain legislative acts known to members of Congress as "pork barrel bills". He claimed that the phrase originated in a pre-Civil War practice of rationing salt pork to slaves, often resulting in a disorderly rush to grab a share.<ref> {{Cite journal |last=Maxey |first=Chester Collins |year=1919 |title=A Little History of Pork |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IVEJAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA694 |journal=National Municipal Review |volume=8 |issue=10 |pages=691–705 |doi=10.1002/ncr.4110081006}}</ref>

==Examples== An early example of pork barrel politics in the United States was the Bonus Bill of 1817, which was introduced by Democratic-Republican John C. Calhoun to construct highways linking the Eastern and Southern United States to its Western frontier using the earnings bonus from the Second Bank of the United States. Calhoun argued for it using general welfare and post-roads clauses of the United States Constitution. Although he approved of the economic development goal, President James Madison vetoed the bill as unconstitutional.

One of the most famous alleged pork-barrel projects was the Big Dig in Boston, Massachusetts. The Big Dig was a project to relocate an existing {{convert|3.5|mi|adj=on}} section of the Interstate Highway System underground. The official planning phase started in 1982; the construction was done between 1991 and 2006, and the project concluded on December 31, 2007. It ended up costing US$14.6 billion, or over US$4 billion per mile.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://archive.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/08/06/big_dig_failures_threaten_federal_funding/ | work=The Boston Globe | title=Big Dig failures threaten federal funding | date=August 6, 2006 | first1=Rick | last1=Klein}}</ref> Tip O'Neill (D-Mass), after whom one of the Big Dig tunnels was named, pushed to have the Big Dig funded by the federal government while he was the speaker of the United States House of Representatives.<ref>{{cite news|last=Rimer | first = Sara |url=http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/01/01/travel/escapes/01boston.html |title=In Boston, Where Change Is in the Winter Air |work=New York Times |date= 30 December 2009 |access-date=17 November 2010 }}</ref>

During the 2008 United States presidential election campaign, the Gravina Island Bridge (also known as the "Bridge to Nowhere") in Alaska was cited as an example of pork barrel spending. The bridge, pushed for by Republican Senator Ted Stevens, was projected to cost $398 million and would connect the island's 50 residents and the Ketchikan International Airport to Revillagigedo Island and Ketchikan.<ref>{{cite book | title = $315 million bridge to nowhere | url = http://www.taxpayer.net/user_uploads/file/Transportation/gravinabridge.pdf | publisher = Taxpayers for Common Sense | date = February 9, 2005 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081025113307/http://www.taxpayer.net/user_uploads/file/Transportation/gravinabridge.pdf | archive-date = October 25, 2008 }}</ref>

Pork-barrel projects, which differ from ''earmarks'', are added to the federal budget by members of the appropriation committees of the United States Congress. This allows the delivery of federal funds to the local district or state of the appropriation committee member, often accommodating major campaign contributors. To a certain extent, a member of Congress is judged by their ability to deliver funds to their constituents. The Chairman and the ranking member of the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations are in a position to deliver significant benefits to their states. Researchers Anthony Fowler and Andrew B. Hall claim that this still does not account for the high reelection rates of incumbent representatives in American legislatures.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Fowler | first1 = Anthony | last2 = Hall | first2 = Andrew B. | title = Congressional seniority and pork: a pig fat myth? | journal = European Journal of Political Economy | volume = 40 | issue = A | pages = 42–56 | doi= 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2015.07.006 | date = December 2015 }}</ref> Former Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye described himself as "the No. 1 earmarks guy in the U.S. Congress".<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Brown|first1=Emma|last2=Post|first2=The Washington|title=Daniel Inouye was war hero, Senate deal maker, 'No. 1 earmarks guy'|url=http://bangordailynews.com/2012/12/18/politics/daniel-inouye-was-war-hero-senate-deal-maker-no-1-earmarks-guy/|access-date=2016-04-11|website=The Bangor Daily News|date=18 December 2012}}</ref> Inouye regularly passed earmarks for funding in the state of Hawaii including military and transportation spending.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Daniel K. Inouye: Campaign Finance/Money – Other Data – Earmarks 2010|url=http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/earmarks.php?cid=n00001762|access-date=2016-04-11|website=www.opensecrets.org}}</ref> ==See also== {{Portal|United States|Politics}} {{Div col|colwidth=20em}} *Christmas tree bill *Citizens Against Government Waste *Clientelism *Corporate welfare *Earmark (politics) *Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 *Golden Fleece Award *Government waste * List of United States political catchphrases *Money loop *Patrimonialism *People's Initiative Against Pork Barrel *Pork barrel scam *Porkbusters *Spoils system {{Div col end}}

== References == {{Reflist|35em}} ==Further reading== * Bickers, Kenneth N., and Robert M. Stein. "The electoral dynamics of the federal pork barrel." ''American Journal of Political Science'' (1996): 1300-1326. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2111752 online]

* Evans, Diana. "Pork barrel politics." ''The Oxford Handbook of the American Congress'' (Oxford University Press, 2011) [https://calgara.github.io/Pol1_Fall2017/Evans_pork_2011.pdf online].

* Evans, Diana. "Policy and pork: the use of pork barrel projects to build policy coalitions in the House of Representatives." ''American Journal of Political Science'' (1994): 894-917. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2111726 online]

* Drazen, Allan, and Marcela Eslava. "Pork barrel cycles." (NBER, 2006). [https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w12190/w12190.pdf online]

* Ransdell, Joseph E. "The High Cost of the Pork Barrel." ''The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science'' 64.1 (1916): 43-55. [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?output=instlink&q=info:4Si2j2k75DAJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt=0,27&scillfp=18144195094585075775&oi=lle online]

* Safire, William. ''Safire's new political dictionary'' (1993) pp.596-597 [https://archive.org/details/safiresnewpoliti00will_0 online]

* Shepsle, Kenneth A., and Barry R. Weingast. "Political preferences for the pork barrel: A generalization." ''American journal of political science'' (1981): 96-111. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2110914 online]

* Sperber, Hans, and Travis Trittschuh. ''American political terms; an historical dictionary'' (1962) pp.331-333. [https://archive.org/details/americanpolitica00sper online]

Category:Political terminology of the United States Category:Public choice theory Category:English-language idioms Category:Political pejoratives Category:Metaphors referring to objects Category:Metaphors referring to food and drink