Word: pork
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...Democrats too have been using the military pork barrel as a grab bag of gifts. Bill Clinton, for instance, backs more Seawolfs for Connecticut. And of course nothing turns a liberal Congressman into a hawk faster than the threat of a base closing on his home turf...
...imagine the fervent ideological objections: planned conversion, like planned anything, would be an "industrial policy," meaning "social engineering" in George Bush's lexicon, meaning socialism and leading straight to the gulag. But military pork-barreling is a kind of industrial policy itself, in which the "plan" seems to be that millions of Americans will make weapons or go without jobs. As for socialism, the military-industrial complex already represents a Soviet-style command economy in the midst of capitalism, a haven from the perils of the market, financed by public largesse...
Later in his career, FDR confided to a friend that rejection from the Pork was the greatest disappointment of his life...
...contrary, the temptation to use the Pentagon as a source of pork- barrel largesse remains as strong as ever. Witness the Connecticut congressional delegation's campaign to force the Administration to build two totally unnecessary nuclear-powered Seawolf submarines, at $3 billion each, which the Pentagon wants to cancel. Clinton unblushingly supports the Seawolf, along with another hyperexpensive program that the Pentagon wants to kill: the vertical takeoff V-22 Osprey, costing $40 million each. For his part, Democratic vice-presidential candidate Al Gore wants to keep open the assembly line for M1-A1 tanks, which Defense Secretary Dick Cheney...
...sergeant at arms for the U.S. House of Representatives, Jack Russ was any Congressman's best friend. For nearly 25 years he doled out pork, fixed parking tickets and covered bad checks at the House bank. But when the bank's irregularities came to light, Russ resigned, making himself ineligible for a $70,000-a-year pension -- at least until Representative Mervyn Dymally of California put Russ back on the payroll as his "adviser." Now Russ can get full health benefits and his pension...