In 2009, President Barack Obama presented an economic stimulus bill with an almost $1 trillion cost. Conservative commentators pointed out that the stimulus bill was loaded with “pork barrel” spending.
 
Radio commentator Rush Limbaugh labeled the “stimulus” bill as the “porkulus” bill (sometimes spelled “porkulous”) by January 27, 2009. Conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt called it a “porkapalooza” by January 28, 2009. Various commentators have called the stimulus bill to be “porktastic.”
 
The words “porkapalooza” and “porktastic” also have prior, non-political uses in pork cook-offs.
   
 
Wikipedia: Porkulus
The neologism porkulus is American political jargon that is used as a pejorative description of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (“Stimulus Bill”). It is a play on words meaning a pork barrel spending bill thinly disguised as an “economic stimulus bill”.
 
The term is also a homonym for “porculus,” the Latin species name for the extinct Guadalcanal Rat.
 
Historical origins
The term comes from a January 29, 2009 Wall Street Journal editorial by the conservative American talk radio host, Rush Limbaugh.
 
The Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan
27 Sep 2007 08:24 am
Porkpalooza
Hard not to love this site - listing all the current and active pork projects in the Congress. Business interests are very well represented. Can’t they make money from, you know, selling things? Do the rest of us have to pay them?
   
RushLimbaugh.com
Nancy Pelosi’s Contraception Plan Aborted from Obama Porkulus Bill
January 27, 2009
   
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From: “Bush Robbed Us” .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)>

Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:29:18 -0800
Local: Tues, Jan 27 2009 5:29 pm
Subject: Limbaugh Lies on ACORN
 
LIMBAUGH: This is just absurd. And none of it—all—if you look at the details of what’s in this porkulous plan—very little of it is stimulating. It’s just pork. It’s the Democrats paying back unions and the people that got them elected. Four-point-one-nine billion for “neighborhood stabilization”: that means voter fraud. That’s ACORN. We are funding Obama’s army with a so-called stimulus plan.
 
Townhall.com
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Calling President Obama
Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 8:42 AM
The Wall Street Journal both reports on the so-called stimulus bill and editorializes about it.
 
There is some sound spending in the bill, just as there is some spending that will have an effect in the next six months.
 
But is overwhelmingly made up of pork, and pork that won’t be delivered until 2010 and 2011.
 
If the bill had serious relief for the housing sector, or a serious push on energy such as a broad and sustained drive for nuclear power, I could understand some Republicans holding their noses and voting for it.
 
But there is just not nearly enough to justify the massive expenditure that makes it porkapalooza.
 
RushLimbaugh.com
Porkulus is the Tip of the Iceberg
January 29, 2009
 
RushLimbaugh.com
House GOP Stood Up and Exposed the Immoral Obama Porkulus Sham
January 29, 2009
   
Townhall.com
Friday, January 30, 2009
On The Size of the Porkapalooza 
Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 9:27 AM
     
Red Bluff (CA) Daily News (February 2, 2009)
Don Polson News & Views: Pork-tastic new Washington of hope and change
By Don Polson
(...)
On the most important subject facing America, we can be proud of our Congressman, Wally Herger, who, together with every single Republican, and eleven Democrats, voted “no” on the “Pork-ulus” (Rush Limbaugh), “Porkapalooza” (Hugh Hewitt), or “Pork-tastic” (me and others) stimulus bill.