|
I guess it depends what we mean by Pork. Some people basically consider just about all gov't spending pork, but I think of it pretty much as district-specific projects that might not usually warrant their own bill or appropriation, but which a member gets included in return for their support for the final bill. I.E. I'll vote for your bill if you include $2m for this pet project in my district kind of thing.
Pan, you are right, not all pork is bad, in fact I would venture that most pork does good. Whether it does better than other ways we could have spent the money is debatable by project, but most pork barrel projects are for things that will be used and will help the communities they affect.
Lets say a rep has a son with a particular disease, and so he gets a piece of pork in a bill by supporting it to build a research facility in his district to study that disease. Now we can say its gov't pork, and we can say its bad legislation because it puts that rep's personal situation before the rest of the nation. On the other hand medical research is key to improving quality of life for all Americans and it will help the community's economy, so it will do good. Should we prevent these riders as egregious pork barrel spending, or will doing that stop a lot of very good things from being built in our country?
|