Oh, I’m pretty sure it IS as simple as that: Santa Claus.
Long as he pulls the most he can from the taxpayers, using D.C., for his State/district, the electorate could not care less about the FUBAR status of the (once) Republic.
To paraphrase: Once the voters know they can vote themselves from the treasury...
Sorry but it’s not plenty of folks who have gotten money from Washington for their districts over the years have been voted out and voted out big. Santorum for instance is a perfect example... We have a half billion dollar one mile tunnel that is a perfect example of slush funding back to your district and he lost reelection by over 20 points and will never be viable in PA again.
He’s not the only one, same thing with Specter. Great at getting money back to PA but was taken out as well...
Plenty of examples of simply bringing money home doesn’t mean re-election