Posted by
Civis on Friday, May 25, 2007 9:41:19 PM
Pork-barrel legislation
Appropriations of public funds by Congress (or other legislative assemblies) for projects that do not serve the interests of any large portion of the country's citizenry but are nevertheless vigorously promoted by a small group of legislators because they will pump outside taxpayers' money and resources into the local districts these legislators represent. Successful promotion of such pork-barrel legislation (often through skillful logrolling) is very likely to get the legislator re-elected by his constituents. Classic examples of such pork-barrel legislation include Federal appropriations bills for dams, river and harbor improvements, bridge and highway construction, and job-training centers, as well as legislation designed to prevent closure of obsolete or unneeded military installations, prisons, VA hospitals and the like.
http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/pork-barrel_legislation
In other words, congressman sit in a room and trade favors in order to get funds allocated for their particular district and disregard the interest of the general public. A proposed bill may not be attractive to a congressman on its own merits, but it looks a lot better when he can insert a few million dollars for his district into the bill without worrying about it being debated on the House and Senate floors.
According to the Founding Fathers, the federal government was empowered with certain express powers, including the right to declare taxes, declare war, and regulate interstate and foreign commerce. I don’t know how apportioning money for a corporate airport in Rice Lake, WI, or a ski lift in Colorado became a federal matter.
The pork process makes me sick. It seems to be the only way career politicians can build a coalition to pass their special interest bills. I shudder to think of the legislative freeze that would occur if a group of legislators attempted to reduce the programs that were designed for the benefit of the few and not in the interest of all.
Check out this CCN report on pork barrel spending on the Americans for Prosperity (AFP) website.
http://www.americansforprosperity.org/index.php?id=3241
Also interesting was an AFP Foundation study showing a 148 percent increase in overall federal lobbying spending by local governments, transportation authorities, public water utilities and state governments, including public universities, between 1998 and 2006. We pay taxes to our local and state governments so they could pay professional lobbyists. What was the intended role of our state’s US Senators and Congressmen? Let them lobby on our behalf.
http://www.americansforprosperity.org/index.php?id=3205
President Franklin Pierce (1853-1857) was right when he defended his reasons for vetoing a social spending measure that did not fall in line with the powers granted to the federal government:
“[If] Congress is to make provision for [paupers], the fountains of charity will be dried up at home, and the several States, instead of bestowing their own means on the social wants of their people ... [will] become humble suppliants [beggars] for the bounty of the Federal Government, reversing their true relation to this Union.”
State and local governments are now humble beggars while federal congressmen are willing to trade principle for votes. A socialistic, inefficient, behemoth of a central government is the norm while free market "laissez-faire" advocates are considered radical. That is some shift in thinking from our nation’s founding.