Graffiti the Ghost

If pork barrel legislation is so wrong, why do they make it sound so delicious?

A couple days ago I heard about BushCo's $286.5 billion transportation bill, on the Daily Show, which is where I get all my news. (Jon Stewart's best quote about the bill: "It also includes 1.6 million dollars for the American Tobacco Trail in North Carolina. I'll tell you everything you need to know about the tobacco trail - it starts at slaves and it ends at cancer.") So I started reading an editorial in SFGate about the bill, and soon I find myself drooling on my keyboard. No, it's not because I get hot & bothered by crappy transportation legislation, it's because the editorial is titled "Transportation bill -- six years of palm-greasing pork," and it's all about delicious pork products, including the mouth-wateringly titled "Davis-Bacon Act."

Since I wasn't 100% sure where the term "pork barrel legislation" originated, I looked it up. According to C-SPAN, "'Pork barrel' came into use as a political term in the post-Civil War era. It recalls the practice of plantation owners who would often hand out rations of salt pork to their slaves, distributing them from wooden barrels. When used in reference to a particular bill, it implies the legislation is loaded with goodies for Members of Congress to distribute to their constituents back home as an act of largesse, courtesy of the federal taxpayer." Mmmm, salt pork...

Kudos go to the organization Citizens Against Government Waste for taking the pork metaphor to the next level. They've got an annual Congressional Pig Book, mini Piglet Books for individual states, and even a Porker of the Month! Oh, oh, pick me! Pick me!

posted by stefbot @ 10:48 AM