Sam Donaldson Quotes

The President is going around the country handing out so much pork that the Agriculture Department is going to have to station a meat inspector on board Air Force One.

I view roads as a source of boundless patronage to the executive, jobbing to members of Congress and their friends, and a bottomless abyss of public money. You will begin by only appropriating the surplus of the post office revenues; but the other revenues will soon be called into their aid, and it will be a source of eternal scramble among the members, who can get the most money wasted in their State

Sooner or later you have to reach down into that old pork barrel.

Congressmen have their noses right in the trough and they're slurping it up for their districts at the expense of all the taxpayers.

Our nation was founded on the pork barrel, and it has become great by political log-rolling.

There's no doubt about it, earmarks are not very popular. There are good earmarks and bad earmarks. The good earmarks are the ones I get for my district.

The Pig Book

Those members of Congress who want to bring back pork to their districts should stand up proudly and be counted.

George W. Bush is a big spender…. When Congress sends up a bill with big. fat, crackling pork, he says, “Where’s the barbecue sauce?”

The host of contractors, speculators, stockjobbers, and lobby members which haunt the halls of Congress, all desirous ... to get their arm into the public treasury, are sufficient to alarm every friend of this country. Their progress must be arrested.

Pork is the most visible malady of Congress from the public point of view.

Tell Congress to go home and make an honest living instead of riding on the backs of the taxpayers.

Members of Congress can not only benefit corporations, but also they can hurt corporations. This gives them the opportunity to extort funds from moneyed interests.

I am guilty of asking the Senate for pork and proud of the Senate for giving it to me.

The theory is that election to Congress is tantamount to being dispatched to Washington on a looting raid for the enrichment of your state or district, and no other ethic need inhibit the feeding frenzy.

The root of most all problems we have today is the uncontrollable appetite of politicians in Washington to dish it out.

The military pork barrel spreads special privilege far beyond the confines of the arms contractors; it directly creates at least two million industrial jobs, every holder of which is all too dependent for his well-being on the well-being of the party oligarchs and the success of their corrupt policies. By virtue of the military budget, a large number of ordinary citizens have been given a direct stake in corrupt power.

Right from the start [1902] every Senator … wanted a project in his state. Every representative wanted one in his district. They didn’t care whether they made economic sense or not.

When Congress opens the government’s purse, the benefits flow to special interests rather than the public interest.

I'm sick and tired - and the American people are sick and tired - of the pork barrel spending.

Many of the earmark request forms are actually filled out by lobbyists and then just turned in by the member's staff to the appropriations committee.

I have never been opposed to earmarks.

We are telling veterans they must sacrifice to pay for the pet projects and contracts to campaign donors of powerful members of Congress.

In Congress, it's all pork, all the time.

Politicians like to confuse congressional spending with earmarks. There is a difference.