The Meaning of Pork
Episode Number: 1535Publication Date: Thursday, February 16, 2006
Like most reasonable Americans, I'm against pork -- that is, the federal spending on local projects that have no national interest. But sometimes I feel a little guilty using the word. One hates to malign the noble pig.
For some time I had thought that "pork" was merely a shortening of "pork barrel." But according to Mencken's "American Language," that's not the case. "Pork" was used as a pejorative for this kind of spending back in 1879; "pork barrel" he found later, in 1913. The original metaphor was the pig.
These days, pork is distributed to various regions in appropriations bills, in special "earmarks." You hear a lot about "earmarks" these days. No one has ever fully explained to me this business about "earmarks." When I earmark a passage in a book, I fold over a small corner of the page. It flaps over like a dog's ear, duly marked. But that's wrong, too. As Merriam-Webster puts it, an earmark is "a mark of identification on the ear of an animal." How agricultural! It's gratifying to learn that the Senate's euphemism for "pork" is, well, a pig-raising-related concept. No mixed metaphors here!
It's handy to think of Congress as farmers in the business of raising pork. It's what politicians trade -- with the special interests that fund their re-election campaigns. So no single-minded careerist would allow his own earmarked livestock to be gored. It all makes sense. Except, of course, for we, the people.
This is Common Sense. I'm Paul Jacob.
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