pork barrel

• porkbarrel, pork-barrel

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔːkˌbaɹəl/

pork barrel (plural pork barrels)

1. (now rare) A barrel used to store pork.
2. (chiefly US) A ready supply of income; one's livelihood.
3. (chiefly US politics, often attributively) State funds as assigned for local or regional expenditure; especially, central money used for regional projects which are eyecatching or designed to appeal to voters.
   • 1973 April 10, James T. Lynn, “Pork-Barrel Waste”, in The New York Times‎:

     As the President said in his veto message, "It should also come as no surprise that over time the program has attained distinct flavor of pork barrel."

   • 1988 February 24, Tom Kenworthy, “Reagan Drops Bid to Cut Pork-Barrel Spending”, in The Washington Post‎:

     President Reagan used part of his State of the Union address to berate Congress for sending him catchall spending bills laden with pork barrel benefits for "cranberry research, blueberry research, the study of crawfish, and the commercialization of wild flowers."

   • 2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 380:

     Peacekeeping initiatives […] can dangle pork-barrel funding as an incentive to leaders who abide by the peace, enhancing their power and electoral popularity.

   • 2019 August 25, Greg Weiner, “The Shallow Cynicism of ‘Everything Is Rigged’”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     Similarly, earmarked, pork-barrel spending […] is an invaluable tool for assembling bipartisan majorities for legislation because it helps members of Congress see the good a bill does for their constituents.

   • 2023 November 29, Philip Haigh, “Comment: Can we save HS2 to Crewe?”, in RAIL, number 997, page 3:

     With an election not much more than a year away, distributing HS2's money into roads is pork barrel politics. Or at least it would be if the money existed.

• pork-barrelling