- Target:
- Congress
- Region:
- United States of America
If the attachment of covid relief to a 5,000 page spending bill with hours to read and analyze seems wrong, then please read through. If you agree, please sign and let's send a message to Congress.
Typically, "pork" 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, certain national defense spending projects, and agricultural subsidies are the most commonly cited examples.
To a certain extent, a member of Congress 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.
Remember these two famous Pork Chops?
One of the most famous alleged pork-barrel projects was the Big Dig in Boston, Massachusetts. The Big Dig was a project to relocate an existing 3.5-mile (5.6 km) section of the Interstate Highway System underground. The official planning phase started in 1982; the construction work was done between 1991 and 2006; and the project concluded on December 31, 2007. It ended up costing US$14.6 billion, or over US$4 billion per mile.[12] Tip O'Neill (D-Mass), after whom one of the Big Dig tunnels was named, pushed to have the Big Dig funded by the federal government while he was the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.[13]
During the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, the Gravina Island Bridge (also known as the "Bridge to Nowhere") in Alaska was cited as an example of pork barrel spending. The bridge, pushed for by Republican Senator Ted Stevens, was projected to cost $398 million and would connect the island's 50 residents and the Ketchikan International Airport to Revillagigedo Island and Ketchikan.[14] Former Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye described himself as “the No. 1 earmarks guy in the U.S. Congress.”[15] Inouye regularly passed earmarks for funding in the state of Hawaii including military and transportation spending.[16]
We, the undersigned, call on Congress to abolish the act of Pork Barrel spending or any attempt to stuff an American Bill brought forth for consideration in any form of Government structure., such as The House of Representatives or The U.S. Congress, not to exclude state level Government. In addition, we, the undersigned, call on Congress to make any such acts punishable as acriminal Ioffense with measurable consequences.
“The term “pork‐barrel politics” refers to instances in which ruling parties channel public money to particular constituencies based on political considerations, at the expense of broader public interests”.
Let the American voices be heard.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Change government spending petition to Congress was written by Thaddeus Greene and is in the category Government at GoPetition.