“Pork barrel” spending (that is, wasteful spending) for one legislator might be called “bringing home the bacon” (that is, essential spending) for another legislator. The saying “one man’s pork is another man’s bacon” has been cited in print since at least 1991.
 
   
12 September 1991, Orlando (FL) Sentinel, “I had a weapon, but not much of one” by Don Boyett, pg. B3:
Best quote of the evening: “One man’s fat is another man’s bacon”—Commissioner Larry Furlong, during discussions of budget cuts.
 
Google News Archive
1 March 1994, The Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT), “Pork again simmering at Capitol” by Jerry Spangler and Bob Bernick Jr., pg. B1, col. 3:
Of course, one man’s pork is another man’s bacon.
 
2 April 1996, Palm Beach (FL) Post, “Who needs Congress?,” pg. 16A:
One man’s pork is another man’s bacon. Floridians may gag at $500,000 of federal money to preserve the sod house in North Dakota where bandleader Lawrence Welk was born, but we won’t listen to criticism of the porcine plan backed by Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, to make Uncle Sam spend $6.6 million restoring beaches in his oceanfront district with money from taxpayers in 50 states.
 
Google Books
A Field Guide to Pigs
By John Pukite
Helena, MT: Falcon
1999
Pg. ?:
One man’s pig is another man’s bacon, which he then brings home.
 
2 October 2005, The Telegraph (Alton, IL), pg. A5, col. 1:
One man’s pork is another man’s bacon
By Don Miller
Recently, Congress passed a number of bills, including a five-year Federal Transportation Act and the energy bill, which have congressional critics screaming “pork-barrel politics!” And yet, after every legislative session, we honor (and re-elect) those elected officials whom we proudly announce were successful in “bringing home the bacon for our community.” It seems that when it comes to congressional spending, one man’s pork is another man’s bacon, so to speak.
 
Polimom Says
One man’s pork is another man’s bacon
Posted on Tuesday 27 March 2007
Nick Anderson at the Houston Chronicle brings to life what I’ve been thinking.
 
How come it’s only “pork” when “the other guys” do it?
 
Times Record News (Wichita Falls. TX)
Our Opinion: Bringing home the bacon
Blanket ban on earmarks impractical
Posted March 16, 2008 at 1 a.m.
Campaigning that one would end pork barrel politics sounds all well and good, unless you’re downhill of the barrel’s roll.
 
One man’s pork, to coin a phrase, is another man’s bacon.
 
In Washington, they’re called earmarks, lucrative federal projects seemingly created for particular constituents, self-centered funding that appears to benefit a select few.
 
The Crawdad Hole
myiq2xu, on February 28, 2013 at 12:37 pm said:
Here’s the cold hard truth: Neither side wants to take the credit/blame for any budget cuts or tax increases.
 
Every single item in the federal budget has a constituency that benefits from it. Everyone is generally in favor of cutting “waste, fraud and abuse” but nobody agrees on the definition.
 
There is an old saying – “One man’s pork is another man’s bacon.”