Word: pork-barrel
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Opposition has surged, then faltered, then lately surged again. Now the final tally is too close to call. The Reagan Administration appears to have tried everything from crude offers of pork-barrel projects to invocations of biblical Armageddon to defend its proposed sale of AWACS radar planes to Saudi Arabia. Yet when the Senate votes on the sale this week, conceded Reagan's Senate proconsul, G.O.P Leader Howard Baker, "it may still be lost...
...lean federal budget, pork-barrel politics as usual...
Democrats have a better alternative. First, by not adopting the Republican tax cut, we can eliminate a large part of the expected shortfall in government revenues. Then, in addition to curbing the pork-barrel projects already mentioned, we can further reduce the deficit and help control inflation by attacking two of the largest and least scrutinized areas of the Federal budget--tax loopholes and defense spending...
Nevertheless, old ways will be hard to change. Congressmen have always fought ferociously to save pork-barrel water projects, obsolete military bases or other federal favors in their districts. Stockman had a preview of future battles two weeks ago during his Senate confirmation hearings. Democrat James Sasser of Tennessee fretted that Stockman's proposed reforms of federal credit programs would increase the borrowing costs of the Tennessee Valley Authority and boost his constituents' electric bills, while Democrat John Glenn of Ohio was concerned that Stockman offered no special help for his state's steel firms...
...federal fiscal restraint has become attractive even to voters in Washington. As a result, Magnuson's pork-barrel record is no longer the asset that it was in past campaigns. Says his moderate Republican opponent, State Attorney General Slade Gorton: "I'm not saying Maggie hasn't done good for this state. He has. I'm saying he has now become part of the problem of ravaging inflation, and that I'm part of the solution...