What is a "government-paid Junket" & "Pork Barrel Spending"?

[Lord Xar]

Hello, two questions.

1. What is a government-paid junket?

2. What is pork barrell spending?

I am asking for a reason :-)

[Chester Copperpot]

Hello, two questions.

1. What is a government-paid junket?

2. What is pork barrell spending?

I am asking for a reason :-)

Pork Barrell spending is when the supporters of a bill add some extra financial gift or incentive to their bill in exchange for support from other politicians..

I believe Junket is like an extravagant trip with all the lavish bells and whistles at taxpayer expense.. but not 100% on the junket thing

[Broadlighter]

Think of a Pork Barrell as it literally appears - A barrell full of bacon. A bill in Congress is like the barrell, but the bill by itself is not enough to garner a congressman's support, he needs an incentive - money for one his projects. Sometimes it's money for a local project like highway improvements or fixing a bridge. Whatever it is the bill gets weighted down with all this 'Pork,' which is a metaphor for additional spending. A good example was the Congress sending a bill earlier this year to pull funding from the occupation in Iraq. The bill had all kinds of 'Pork' added to it, so much that President Bush vetoed it citing the 'Pork' as his reason.

A government-paid junket would be something like a congressman's day out with his colleagues at a country club, with all of the course fees, equipment rentals, drinks and food and maybe even transportation to and from the Golf Club covered by a government budget. Most junket's I've heard about are usually covered by some special interest with the intention of garnering a congressman's support for something.