Editing Pork barrel (section)

==Examples==
An early example of pork barrel politics in the United States was the [[Bonus Bill of 1817]], which was introduced by Democrat [[John C. Calhoun]] to construct [[highway]]s linking the Eastern and Southern United States to its [[American frontier|Western frontier]] using the earnings bonus from the [[Second Bank of the United States]]. Calhoun argued for it using general welfare and post-roads clauses of the [[United States Constitution]]. Although he approved of the economic development goal, President [[James Madison]] vetoed the bill as [[Constitutionality|unconstitutional]].

One of the most famous alleged pork-barrel projects was the [[Big Dig]] in [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]]. The Big Dig was a project to relocate an existing {{convert|3.5|mi|adj=on}} section of the [[Interstate Highway System]] underground. The official planning phase started in 1982; the construction was done between 1991 and 2006, and the project concluded on December 31, 2007. It ended up costing US$14.6 [[1,000,000,000 (number)|billion]], or over US$4 billion per mile.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/08/06/big_dig_failures_threaten_federal_funding/ | work=The Boston Globe | title=Big Dig failures threaten federal funding | date=August 6, 2006 | first1=Rick | last1=Klein}}</ref> [[Tip O'Neill]] (D-Mass), after whom one of the Big Dig tunnels was named, pushed to have the Big Dig funded by the federal government while he was the [[speaker of the United States House of Representatives]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Rimer | first = Sara |url=http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/01/01/travel/escapes/01boston.html |title=In Boston, Where Change Is in the Winter Air |work=New York Times |date= 30 December 2009 |access-date=17 November 2010 }}</ref>

During the [[2008 United States presidential election]] campaign, the [[Gravina Island Bridge]] (also known as the "Bridge to Nowhere") in Alaska was cited as an example of pork barrel spending. The bridge, pushed for by Republican Senator [[Ted Stevens]], was projected to cost $398 million and would connect the island's 50 residents and the [[Ketchikan International Airport]] to [[Revillagigedo Island]] and [[Ketchikan]].<ref>{{cite book | title = $315 million bridge to nowhere | url = http://www.taxpayer.net/user_uploads/file/Transportation/gravinabridge.pdf | publisher = Taxpayers for Common Sense | date = February 9, 2005 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081025113307/http://www.taxpayer.net/user_uploads/file/Transportation/gravinabridge.pdf | archive-date = October 25, 2008 }}</ref><!--Please feel free to add other examples of pork barrel. Could you include a link to the pork barrel's Wikipedia article, its cost, and a citation? --> Pork-barrel projects, which differ from ''[[Earmark (politics)|earmarks]]'', are added to the federal budget by members of the appropriation committees of the [[United States Congress]]. This allows the delivery of federal funds to the local district or state of the appropriation committee member, often accommodating major campaign contributors. To a certain extent, a member of Congress is judged by their ability to deliver funds to their constituents. The Chairman and the [[ranking member]] of the [[United States Senate Committee on Appropriations]] are in a position to deliver significant benefits to their states. Researchers Anthony Fowler and Andrew B. Hall claim that this still does not account for the high reelection rates of incumbent representatives in American legislatures.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Fowler | first1 = Anthony | last2 = Hall | first2 = Andrew B. | title = Congressional seniority and pork: a pig fat myth? | journal = [[European Journal of Political Economy]] | volume = 40 | issue = A | pages = 42–56 | doi= 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2015.07.006 | date = December 2015 }}</ref> Former Hawaii Senator [[Daniel Inouye]] described himself as "the No. 1 earmarks guy in the U.S. Congress".<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Brown|first1=Emma|last2=Post|first2=The Washington|title=Daniel Inouye was war hero, Senate deal maker, 'No. 1 earmarks guy'|url=http://bangordailynews.com/2012/12/18/politics/daniel-inouye-was-war-hero-senate-deal-maker-no-1-earmarks-guy/|access-date=2016-04-11|website=The Bangor Daily News|date=18 December 2012}}</ref> Inouye regularly passed earmarks for funding in the state of Hawaii including military and transportation spending.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Daniel K. Inouye: Campaign Finance/Money – Other Data – Earmarks 2010|url=http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/earmarks.php?cid=n00001762|access-date=2016-04-11|website=www.opensecrets.org}}</ref>