@Miriamm
Not sure how to fit this in, but the phrase: "Kill the fatted calf" just jumped into my mind. Or maybe the "fat cats"?

To be clear, I don't want to kill anybody, although some of those pols' heads mounted on the walls might offer a lesson to the ones still passing laws.

I can get more than enough lunch in Portland Maine for $10-15. What in tarnation are the North Dakota politicians gobbling while the little kids starve?