Pork Barreling Essay

The main goal of this paper is to assess why Americans tend to feel coldly towards the United States Congress. Looking at factors such as total income, I theorize that due to the large lifestyle gap between the citizens of the U.S. and their congress the American people might feel a disconnect to Congress and in return not feel warmly towards them. By controlling for outside variables and running a multitude of tests the results have shown that the relationship between income and feelings towards congress is not spurious and can be counted on as an accurate reflection of the American people’s true feelings. However, it is an opposite relationship from my hypothesis. I hypothesize that as income decreases feelings towards Congress would grow colder; instead, tests revealed that

This written report is appertaining to the book How Congress Works and Why You Should Care, written by Lee H. Hamilton. This book is published by Indiana University Press in Bloomington, IL, it was copyrighted in 2004 by the publisher.

‘Despite several attempts to regulate campaign finance, money increasingly dominates the U.S. Electoral process and is the main factor contributing to a candidates success’ Discuss (30 marks)

This diminishes the potential of an elitist concentration developing in the congress. By providing each politician (whose is significant enough to qualify for such funding) an equal amount of funding to use to campaign during an election, the frugality of limited resources will cause the funds to be spent deliberately, appealing to people through a political platform and message, and not due to behemoth largesse employed to win elections. According to author of Welfare for Politicians?: Taxpayer Financing of Campaigns John Samples, “Fundraising success correlates strongly with electoral success. In 2002, 95 percent of House winners raised more than their opponents. In 2004, more than 95 percent of House winners outspent their

In the past century, people continued to express an increasingly discontent view of Congress especially true when one looks back before the Clinton Impeachment debacle As the size of the nation and the number of congressman have grown, the congress has come under attack by both public influences and congressman themselves. Yet looking at one congressman's relationship with his or her constituents, it would be hard to believe that this is the branch of government that has come under suspect. In "If Ralph Nader says congress is 'The broken branch,' how come we love our congressman so much?" author Richard F. Fenno, Jr., provides insight into this view and why, through congress coming under fire, constituents still feel positively about

This means they will likely raise money in any way possible to increase their chances of winning. This leads many members of Congress to give less consideration to the needs of low-income individuals when developing legislation. Since these low-income individuals do not have the means to give large amounts of money to re-election campaigns, their views are often ignored. Many members of Congress endorse legislation that would benefit their largest donors. This leads to a Congress that is not a true representative of the broad interests across the United States (Flavin 2015).

The congressional behaviors of Representative Maxine Waters, a Democratic representative for the 43rd district of California, and that of Democratic Representative Darren Soto are both inspired by the goal of reelection. This common goal of reelection coined by David Mayhew is achieved differently by each representative depending on the demographics, political leaning, and incumbency of the district. When comparing the legislative behavior of Darren Soto, the representative of Florida’s newly drawn 9th congressional district, and that of Representative Maxine Waters from California’s 43rd Congressional district, this holding becomes evident. This paper will argue that while both Rep. Waters, and Rep. Soto are inspired by the common goal of

Another obstacle is that this long time frame spent debating a piece of legislation can end up costing the public more money than if a quick decision could be made. Another obstacle is that almost every piece of legislation ends up becoming a partisan strategy for gaining public favor. (Synel, 2008)

One of the advantages that incumbents enjoy in congressional elections is due to “Pork barrel politics” this term is used when congressmen and senators focus government funds into their home

32. Legislators use pork barrel politics and earmarks to bring money and jobs back to their home districts to show their constituents that they are working toward their best interests in Congress.

Taylor, a special interest group member, controlled everything Senator Paine did until he finally decided to change. This denotes the impact that wealth can have in the government. The system is designed so that things such as pork barreling can pass and sometimes need to pass in order for a law to go through. This creates a system of lies and corruption, with members of the Senate not looking out for the national good. Senators are forced to focus on improving their own district because it is all they can do to ensure re-election. The most successful Senators do this because it gains short-term approval from their district and gets them a future vote. This is a method of maintaining their career, and is something they are in some cases forced to do. If someone like Mr. Smith came in and was consistently free of corruption, people would vote for him based on his truthfulness.

The first influence is representational view. Author James Wilson says “Representational view is the reasonable assumption that members want to get reelected, and therefore vote to please their constituents” (Wilson, pg.340). Representational view sounds a lot like trying to impress someone to get on their good graces or trying to please someone. When a congressman votes like this, it really gets in the way of what is important. Do they really care what is going on? It does not sound like it, according to James Wilson. When a congressman vote like this, Wilson mentions the example of gun control and that sometimes they get conflicting views and that whichever way they vote, it may cost them dearly in the next election. What is even more frustrating is that “occasionally, members of Congress in this situation will try to be out of town when the matter comes up for a vote” (Wilson, pg. 341). What is the point of being in Congress if you are not going to be around for the major decisions? Just along for the free ride I am assuming. All in all,

The passage of Prop 140 in 1990 had unintended consequences for the legislator. Not only did Prop 140 implement term limits to increase turnover in the legislation, but it also reduced funding. The reduction in funding led to the closure of bi-partisan resources, such as the Assembly Office of Research. The combination of legislators with less experience due to the term limits, and lack of resources as result of the budget cuts, has dramatically weakened the effectivity of the legislator. Consequently, the vacuum created by prop 140 has been filled by lobbyist and the Governor. Recent studies illustrate a significant drop in declines made by the legislator to the Governor’s budget since the implementation of term limits (Kousser). Although Proposition 2 does not directly fix the unintended consequences of Prop 140, it mitigates some of the negative effects, bringing more balance between the two branches. Due to the shortcomings of Proposition 58, the governor has much discretion in handling California debt, whereas Prop 2 calls for a mandatory 1.5% of the budget. Additionally, Proposition 2 mandates that scheduled fund transfers can only be repealed if the Governor calls a state of emergency and gains approval of the legislator. Requiring approval of the legislators not only empowers legislators attempting to cope the debt crisis, but also prevents a

Wayne, Lasser, Miller and others tend to agree that lobbyists and PACs have a great amount of influence over congress members because they may have direct connections and give campaign contributions. Recently, the airlines industry convinced congress to pass a $15 billion aid package it needs in order to survive. “The airlines had plenty of resources to draw on: 27 in-houses lobbyists, augmented by lobbyists from 42 Washington firms, including former White House aides and transportation secretaries, as well as the airlines own chief executives and corporate board members, whom all are well known in the halls of congress”(Wayne, NYT, 10/01/01. Lasser, American Politics, 1999. Miller, The American Prospect, 10/23/00. Geiger, Washington Post, 11/4-10/91.)

A company's budget serves as a guideline in planning and committing costs in order to meet tactical and strategic goals. Tactical goals such as providing budgetary costs for daily operations, and strategic objectives that include R&D, production, marketing, and distribution are all part of the budgeting process. Serving as a guideline rather than being set in stone, the budget is a snapshot of manager's "best thinking at the time it is prepared." (Marshall, 2003, p.496) The budget is a method in which to reign-in discretionary spending, and will likely show variances between what costs have been anticipated and what costs are actually incurred.