Pork Barrel Politics

I had an interesting conversation with my neighbor. He brought up a subject that’s been on my mind, but I hadn’t been sure how to write about it yet.

There is a lot of controversy and bashing whenever Governor Sununu vetoes a bill. I’ve often wondered why he would veto something that sounds like it would be so beneficial… but I also know, bills are not a simple, one-subject. Voting to accept one bill means also accepting a lot of other bills which are not being publicized. (Otherwise known as pork barrel politics.)

I first heard the term “pork” years ago but never paid much attention. Then, during the COVID pandemic, I began finding out about all the other bills attached to the COVID bills which had absolutely nothing to do with COVID. In other words, millions of taxpayers’ dollars fund other bills having nothing to do with the promoted bill!

The definition of pork barrel politics is: “… the legislator's practice of slipping funding for a local project into a budget. The project may have nothing to do with the bill and may benefit only the legislator's home district. Before a bill gets to a vote, pork-barreling has often greatly inflated its costs through the addition of various legislators' pet projects.”

In other words, the legislature and politicians put together a good-sounding bill which gets all the media attention. But then they attach a lot of other bills which no one ever hears about (unless they do a ton of research), and which furthers the politicians’ personal agendas. And there’s also the “I’ll vote for your bill if you vote for mine” behind-the-scenes manipulating.

So, when a governor vetoes a do-good bill, it could be because of other wording in attached bills and nothing to do with the main bill. Perhaps this is all a lesson in looking below the surface. It’s easy to take a partially heard statement (whether purposely misrepresented or just misunderstood) and fly off the handle. Too many times we only hear a part of a line of a speech or bill and what the speaker intended becomes grossly twisted.

Maybe the most important question is always to ask, “What exactly do you mean by that?”

And, unfortunately, we can’t trust the media to report the truth. It’s all about interpretation and who’s doing the reporting. And too, how many people want to spend the time researching and double checking everything the government (whether state or federal) is doing? Aren’t we supposed to be able to trust those who are supposedly representing us?

We should all be informed about the entirety of the bills being passed.

A big term being used these days is “transparency.” Where’s the transparency in all this?