the.com/logrolling
You scratch my bill, I scratch yours, and the taxpayer gets splinters.
means A practice where people trade favors or votes to get each other's self-interested goals approved, especially in politics or publishing.
from Comes straight from the literal practice of logrolling on the American frontier — neighbors would pool labor, rolling and clearing felled logs together on one another's land, with the understanding that the favor would be returned when it was your turn. By the 1800s Americans had already turned it into a political metaphor: lawmakers 'rolling' each other's pet bills through in the same cooperative, you-help-me-I'll-help-you spirit, just with appropriations instead of timber.
- origin
- literally from lumberjacks helping each other roll logs
- political use
- lawmakers trade votes to pass unrelated pet projects
- modern form
- earmarks bundled into must-pass spending bills
- also means
- critics swapping glowing reviews for each other's books