Are Americans in love with pork? I find that hypothesis doubtful. Representative Jeff Flake of Arizona, who has crusaded against pork in Congress, ran on an explicitly anti-pork platform in Arizona for his re-election campaign. He promised to keep pork from flowing into his district -- and he won re-election by a margin of 74%-26%, outpolling his challenger by 71,000 votes out of 147,000.
Why did Flake win? Voters in his district understand that pork and earmarks are the gateway drug to corruption. Every major corruption scandal has revolved around earmarking federal funds for grants and contracts to specific entities, who have returned the favor by showering the politicians with favors, gifts, and cash -- plenty of cash. Bribery does not work as easily on the macro level in Congress, because it takes so many votes to get a bill passed. Instead, corrupting influences focus on gaining federal money through amendments and earmarks because those are routinely carried as a professional courtesy into the final version of the legislation.
But do our voters understand that about Pork Barrel? Or will their attitude be: gimme gimme gimme more? What's in it for me? Maybe they don't care if pork barrel is a major source of corruption, or that it is not the most efficient way to use our taxpayer money, as long as these pols shower them with pork money during the election campaign.
Read the whole thing. I tell ya, malaking factor ang Pork Barrel sa re-election campaign ng mga tongressmen ni Arroyo. Babaha ang pera sa 2007 midterm elections. Mark my words.
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