What is meant by ‘Pork-barrel politics’ and what is its significance in Congress?

Pork-barrel spending is a metaphor for when government money is given to a representative’s district usually in order to gain support for a certain piece of legislation or to help aid their re-election. It is significant because of how high the rate of incumbent re-election is, as representatives who can gain money for their constituency will be more popular in their home state. If they can get a bridge paid for by the government, then they can create better transport links and more jobs, helping to create more prosperity for their local constituents. However, after the 2008 financial crisis, many voters, especially fiscal conservatives, were against the spending as they saw it as a waste of federal money and irresponsible considering the size of the federal debt. Tip O’neil is a Congressman for Massachusetts who directed $14.9 billion of federal money on the ‘big dig’ tunnel in his district, a huge amount of money increasing the national debt.  Therefore congressman that gained pork-barrel spending for their districts became increasingly unpopular after the crisis due to resentment over national issues. However, Pork-barrel spending has been largely ended due to the reaction of the public after the 2008 financial crisis. This is because the government debt had become so large that there was no justification for spending so much money on non-essential state projects just to get legislation passed or to get incumbents reelected. However, the ability to use pork-barrel spending was important for getting legislation passed through Congress as the Speaker of the house could persuade congressman/senators (specifically those who are heads of committees) through offering amendments to the bill to include spending for their districts.  Furthermore, as committee chairs have much more influence when it comes to gaining pork-barrel spending, congressmen will attempt to gain these positions and as a result they will have more power over the flow of money. Whilst this would increase their chances of re-election, this is at expense of the national interest, which becomes secondary to the interests of the congressmen’s constituents. This means that money is inefficiently spent as millions are wasted on projects which only benefit a small number of people. Additionally, a problem caused by pork-barrel spending is that it leads to a huge number of amendments to a bill which can cause them to become so long they are unreadable.