Once a selling point for lawmakers, congressionally directed spending – otherwise known as earmarks or “pork barrel” projects – is becoming a liability for many incumbents in Campaign 2010.
Pork-barrel politicians hand out rents to win votes and influence people.
搞分肥拨款的政客为赢得选票、影响民情而发放房租补贴。
It's a lot more than $18 billion in pork-barrel spending.
它远比180亿美元的建设经费花销多。
Jim DeMint, a senator from South Carolina, wants his colleagues to adopt a voluntary ban on earmarks, a form of pork-barrel spending particularly reviled by fiscal hawks.
On Capitol Hill, there is only getting: politicians will vote for a bill if they get something, like a tax cut for an interest group or a pork-barrel project for their district.