Earmarks, Logrolling, and Pork Barrel Make-up Work

1. Earmarks: a legislative (especially congressional) provision that directs approved funds to be spent on specific projects, or that directs specific exemptions from taxes or mandated fees. Origin: England, meaning "to set aside money for a special purpose".

• An example is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) signed last year. This $787 billion act was supposed to provide earmark funding for "shovel-ready" projects that would help get Americans back to work. However, they added a $3.4 million "turtle-crossing" project to be constructed under Highway 27, so that they can cross safely. This is an example of an earmark because they added this act in to make more people, environmentalist, vote for it. 
• Earmarks are legal, accepted, and commonly used. Politicians don't want to rid earmarking because they can use it to their advantage, even if someone else uses it to their disadvantage. 

2. Logrolling: the trading of favors, such as vote trading by legislative members to obtain passage of actions of interest to each legislative member. Origin: American English, from the notion of neighbors on the frontier helping one another with the heavy work of clearing land and building cabins. No body falls off the log- they keep it rolling.

• An example of logrolling is the Hurricane Sandy Disaster realsease act. Conservatives voted against the aid because there was so much unnecessary stuff tagged onto the bill. This made the Conservatives look extremely bad because who would vote against aid for a hurricane? However, all the Democrats passed it because it was a helpful act for the Hurricane Sandy Disaster that appealed to the public, but they tagged on a lot of extra things.
• Logrolling is legal, accepted to who uses it, not accepted to those effected by it because it is a corrupt practice, and it is commonly used.  

3. Pork Barrel: a metaphor for the appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured sole or primary to ring money to a representative's district. The term is used in derogatory fashion to attack opponents in election campaigns. Origin: American English. 

• An example of pork-barreling is when Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa received $7.2 million for his self-untitled program, the Harkin Grant Program, which benefitted Iowa's public schools.
• Pork Barreling Politics has been used since the 1800's, so it is a very common practice. 

Each of these three concepts are connected because they are all corrupt, the legislators doing it are all after their own agenda to get stuff done for their sake. Most of the things they do is wasteful spending. Tax-payers deserve to be treated better than this. Logrolling refers to the how a few people work together to "stay on a log and make it roll around" right. They work together to pass what they want for the "good" of each other. Pork Barreling and Earmarks do not refer to the act of working together, instead they both use funding for their own benefit. Earmarking is regularly called earmarks, so they are very similar.