What the hell is "porkbarrel spending" ??

[Smith_3]

McCain is against porkbarrel spending.

And who has ever wasted more money than GW?

[nichomachus]

1. Try googling the term n/t

[Smith_3]

2. wow. there is even a wiki for it.

[cynatnite]

3. Here...

The term pork barrel, while literally meaning a barrel in which pork is kept, is more commonly used as a political metaphor for the appropriation of government spending for projects that are intended primarily to benefit particular constituents or campaign contributors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork_barrel

[Smith_3]

4. So, from that wiki...

...I get the impression that without "porkbarrel" projects, we would essentially still be riding horses on dirt roads and pumping water by hand.

[Tippy]

5. With it we can drive on a bridge that goes nowhere.....

A slang term used when politicians or governments "unofficially" undertake projects that benefit a group of citizens in return for that group's support or campaign donations. This spending mostly benefits the needs of a small select group despite the fact that the entire community's funds are being used.

[Smith_3]

6. So is healthcare for orphans porkbarrel spending?

Since the orphans don't pay tax and the communities funds are used for them regardless?

[cherokeeprogressive]

7. See "Robert Byrd" n/t

[sinkingfeeling]

8. "Earmarks" to anybody born after the 1980's.

[jmowreader]

9. Let me tell you all about pork

I have two rules of pork.

Rule Number One: the Denial Rule. If it's in my district, it's not pork. It's "bringing jobs to the district" or "bringing our tax dollars home." Five will get you twenty Ted Stevens never called the Bridge to Nowhere a pork-barrel project.

Rule Number Two: the Pig Picking Rule. (A pig picking is an event that happens in the South. You roast a whole pig, then pick the meat off the bones and serve it to your guests.) Once the pork comes out, everyone wants some.

Citizens Against Government Waste publishes the "Pig Book"--a compendium of what they call pork--every year. It would be interesting to get a copy of this and pull out all the Arizona earmarks.