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Ah the joys of Wikipedia

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

Pork barrel (or pork barrel politics) is a derogatory term
describing government spending that is intended to benefit
constituents of a politician in return for their political support,
either in the form of campaign contributions or votes. Typically
it involves 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 and
agricultural subsidies are the most commonly cited examples,
but they do not exhaust the possibilities. Pork barrel spending is
often allocated through last-minute additions to appropriation
bills.
One of the earliest examples of pork barrel politics in the United
States was the Bonus Bill of 1817, which was introduced by John
C. Calhoun to construct highways linking the East and South of
the 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. Since then, however, U.S. presidents
have seen the political advantage of pork barrel politics. The
Oxford English Dictionary gives the first appearance of the term
in print as 1909, in the Westminster Gazette:
"The Democratic Party?has periodically inveighed against the
extravagance of the present administration, but its
representatives in the Legislature have exercised no critical
surveillance over their appropriations. They have preferred to
take for their own constituencies whatever could be got out of
the Congressional 'pork barrel'."
In recent years, a famous pork barrel project is the Interstate 99
designation that was written into law by Pennsylvania
Representative Bud Shuster. The number was disputed by road
scholars, who envisioned it as a number for a new freeway
running along the Atlantic coast. I-99's location is a violation of
the Interstate system's numbering rules, as it is located west of
Interstate 81 and seven other Interstates whose numerical values
are less than 99.
Pork barrel projects or earmarks are added to the federal budget
by members of the appropriation committees of Congress. This
allows 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 congressman
or congresswoman is judged by their ability to deliver funds to
their constituents. The Chairman and the Ranking member of
the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations are in a position to
deliver significant benefits to their states. Likewise a
Representative such as Anne M. Northup (R-Ky.), a Republican
first elected in 1995 from the previously Democratic 3rd
Congressional district (Louisville, Kentucky), was able to deliver
significant financial benefits to her district through her
appointment as a freshman member to the U.S. House
Committee on Appropriations.

As for the term's origins, I find several contradictory stories:

http://www.answers.com/topic/pork-barrel
From pork barrel, barrel for storing pork, supply of money.

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mslushfund.html
In olden days, like the early 1800s, fried salt pork was a staple
food aboard ships. At the end of a voyage, the grease at the
bottom of the pork barrel, called "slush," was sold to candle and
soap makers. The money usually helped provide little extras that
the crew couldn't otherwise afford, hence the term "slush fund."
After the U.S. Civil War, the term was applied to a contingency
fund set aside by Congress, outside of the regular operating
budget, that was often used for bribes and other corrupt
purposes. .

By the way, the term "pork-barrel," referring to the federally-
funded projects of dubious necessity that members of Congress
use to reward loyal constituents, is probably derived from the
same origin.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/letter_from_america/
3354949.stm

You can get to the true juicy taste of the "pork" in the American
political sense if you know the origin of the term. And there
seems no doubt it derives from a benevolent practice common in
the South in the years before the civil war.

Slave owners on special occasions, or whenever they were
feeling particularly charitable (some did it regularly in the
binding spirit of noblesse oblige - a code the best owners lived
by), would put out salt pork in big barrels at a certain time on an
announced day.

And like the Oklahoma settlers waiting for the firing of a gun to
rush and seize a claim of land, the slaves would rush to the
barrels and grab what they could.

Posted by: tic swayback   Posted on: 10/18/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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