Pork Barrel Projects and the National Debt

Paper Summary:

This paper defines pork barrel spending, analyzes its origins and evolution in the national debate and suggests reasons why it is a constant topic when government spending is discussed. The paper also discusses how pork barrel spending is used by the party in charge and how the party out of power accuses their opponents of pursuing wasteful or partisan spending.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Major Concepts and Variables
Origins and Definitions of Pork Barrel Spending
Hypothesis
Research Methodology: Data Collection Steps and Procedures
Testing the Hypothesis
Literature Review
Research Findings Summary and Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Farm Bills are notorious for under-spending their allocation. That is because the price supports sections, which are a significant part of the bills, generally fall below that which is allocated. For this reason, the author chose to analyze actual amounts spent each year on agriculture (totaling for every 5 years) rather than the amounts of the Farm Bills in question. The one exception to this is the 2007 Farm Bill, which at $290 billion is more than twice the previous five-year period, and an increase from 6% to 13% of the Federal budget. While the Farm Bill actual expenses could be higher , the expected continuation of high farm commodity prices suggests that much of that portion of the bill will not be spent in the upcoming period. Since the Federal deficit in 2007 is historically low (1.0%, as compared to 2.6% over the past 50 years), that means that the Farm Bill's correlation as compared with previous 5-year periods is fairly low. Even a reduction to 8-10%, however, would show a low correlation with Federal deficits, as the pork barrel spending is increasing as the deficit is decreasing."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Alesina, A. and Rosenthal, H. Partisan politics, divided government and the economy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
• Antonelli, A. The One Percent Budget Showdown: Clinton's Veto Threats In Perspective. Backgrounder, Washington: Heritage Foundation, 1999.
• AP. "Japan's National Debt Hits Record High." Free Republic, September 23, 2005: n.p.
• Blais, A, Blake, D and Dion, S. "Do parties make a difference? Parties and the size of government in liberal democracies." American Journal of Political Science, 1993: 40-62.
• Caplan, B. "Has Leviathan Been Bound? A Theory of Imperfectly Constrained Government with Evidence from the States." Southern Economic Journal, 2001: 825-851.

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