Who doesn't like pork? After all, it is the "other white meat." What could possibly be wrong with pork? Unfortunately, the term pork does not carry the same high value on Capitol Hill as it does on various restaurant menus. Political pork would refer to the high excess in government expenditures and federal waste. This "pork-barrel" spending has been so highly publicized by the mass media in recent years, that it has now become a major party platform issue (Anderson 33). It is also alleged that this squandering of federal funds not only burns a collective hole in the wallets of every American, but also leads to other nationwide problems like political apathy. In fact, one could consider wasteful government expenditures to be at the top of the United States" ever-growing list of domestic policy problems.
The system of democracy that is currently in place allows individual Americans the right to vote for certain representatives whom make and carry out the laws that the vast majority live by. This organization of governing has been successful for over 200 years. So where's the problem one may ask? When the average American pays taxes, they most likely trust that their hard-earned dollars are going to programs considered to be necessary. What the average American might not know is that $100,000 of their taxes are going to the "Weed It Now!" project to rid harmful shrubbery from the beautiful Berkshire Mountains in Western Massachusetts (Carney 45-6). Perhaps some other citizens would be interested to know that an unknown representative tagged $393,000 for "sustainable agricultural research" in which no one from Congress has been able to explain what this money is for or who has claimed it. In addition, most tax payers are probably not aware of the $460 million that former Senate Majority leader Trent Lott tucked into the defense budget without any voting or committee hearings to build an unneeded assault ship at Ingalls Shipyard in his hometown of Pascagoula, Mississippi (Thomas 49-50).