When you're in the business of tracking career politicians, like I am, one of the things you notice is how often the careerists lard their legislation with pork.
Pork is payola.
It's spending on specific local projects at national taxpayer expense. It may be a statue or a football stadium or a military base that the military no longer needs. Anything that funds a narrow local interest without regard to the common good. Politicians push pork not to promote the general welfare but to get reelected. There's concrete evidence that it helps them do just that.