Dismantle, ban, condemn pork barrel

PUBLIC opinion against the pork barrel (generic term for the humongous amounts of taxpayers’ money made available to legislators and other government officials from unconscionable budget items) is at an all-time high after the depredations on the national moral fiber (presuming it still exists) that inevitably came with the dubious practice, an undemocratic acquisition of monetary power beyond checks and balances intended to control it.

We are now furious and rabidly trying to find the culprits in this unholy mess. Crying for blood is the last resort when the first should have been not to allow the acquisition of public funds for pork barrel purposes. While we sail on the seas of what we consider righteous anger, it is a bit of a delayed reaction and not quite so definitively righteous either. WE have known for some decades now that the pork barrel was present and on the ascendant in executive-legislative interaction. Quid pro quo was a way of life, of legislating, dealing with constituents, making a mark as a public official. We have allowed it to be established, it is not new but belongs to the past and the present.