Mate, let me tell you, the USA does not have a monopoly on rent-seeking behaviour.
That said, you have weak party discipline in Congress, which makes horse-trading inevitable. That and the separation of powers means that there is no incentive to run a sensible budget and every incentive to pork-barrel.
I don't blame Americans. The US Constitution was state of the art when it was written. Australia has been lucky in that we got to see how it worked in practice before we wrote ours.
That said, you have weak party discipline in Congress, which makes horse-trading inevitable. That and the separation of powers means that there is no incentive to run a sensible budget and every incentive to pork-barrel.
I don't blame Americans. The US Constitution was state of the art when it was written. Australia has been lucky in that we got to see how it worked in practice before we wrote ours.