Word: pork-barrel
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Having failed at persuasion, Johnson tried ill-disguised pressure. He ordered a freeze on all nonessential government spending-notably the pork-barrel, river and harbor projects so dear to most Congressmen-as an economy move. To avoid the appearance of arm twisting, Johnson did not announce the move himself, instead reiterated his plea to Congress to enact his tax bill and cut expenditures. "I know it is not a popular thing for a President to do-to ask anyone for a penny out of a dollar to pay for a war that is not popular," Johnson told savings-and-loan...
...mile waterway that will connect Lake Erie with the Ohio River at a cost estimated as high as $3 billion. The project has a flock of critics. But its sponsor is Ohio Democrat Mike Kirwan, 79, the Congressman responsible each year for doling out some $4 billion in pork-barrel projects to his colleagues, and most House members would sooner abandon Panama than damn Kirwan's canal...
...ever purer than Adhemar de Barros. His jutting profile, immense belly, and expansive grandstand manner were pure Falstaff. His snake-charming baritone and God-fearing homilies were pure medicine show. His pork-barrel pilfering as three-time Governor of São Paulo, Latin America's greatest industrial state, was pure Tammany. He once fled the country to escape a jail sentence for misappropriating public funds, and he seemed almost proud to be known as the politician who "builds while he steals...
Rivers-and-harbors bills are sometimes referred to as "pork-barrel bills," since Congressmen often attempt to have a pet project included. But Maass and Cooper contend that "the bill is more the President's bill than is much legislation, for almost all the projects in it have been recommended...
Peppery Pronunciamento. The President signed dozens of bills, notably the pork-barrel measure authorizing $1.9 billion for various river and harbor projects, and the $4.3 billion public works bill. After he signed the rivers-and-harbors bill, Johnson issued a peppery pronunciamento warning that he had absolutely no intention of implementing the act's provision that water-resources projects costing under $10 million be authorized by congressional public works committees-a short cut that would bypass the possibility of a presidential veto. Discussing this section, the President declared: "The people of this country did not elect me to this...