> because politicians pork barrel contracts for their districts and states.

> Or possibly politicians attracting investment to their districts for the benefit their voters

That's literally the same thing - you just gave the definition of pork barrel spending. It isn't purely bad, it's just excessive or unnecessary to benefit one politician's constituents.

And pork barrel spending is also literally a centrally-planned economy. It's the federal government saying "put this industry here" despite the fact that capitalism would not have put it there.