Campaigning in Virginia, McCain suggested earmarks are particularly shameful at a time when families are struggling with rising food, gas and home mortgage costs. He vowed again to veto any bill that contains such funding.
"I got an old ink pen, my friends, and the first pork barrel-laden earmark, big-spending bill that comes across my desk, I will veto it. You will know their names. I will make them famous and we'll stop this corruption," McCain said during a rally at a park in suburban Washington, D.C.
Palin has sought $197 million worth of earmarks for 2009, down about 25 percent from the $256 million she sought in the 2008 budget year. As mayor of tiny Wasilla, Alaska, she hired a lobbyist to seek federal money for special projects. Wasilla obtained 14 earmarks, totaling $27 million, between 2000-2003, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama hasn't asked for any earmarks this year. The Illinois senator sought $311 million in such funding last year. McCain, an Arizona senator, doesn't seek earmarks for his state.
Undaunted by his running mate's ties to earmarks, McCain said: "I've fought corruption, and it didn't matter if it was Democrats or Republican, and so has Sarah Palin."
Palin said she has "championed earmark reform" as governor and "reformed the abuses of earmarks in our state." Now, she said, she is ready to join McCain in Washington "so we can end the corrupt practice of abusive earmarks after all."
The practice of earmarking — lawmakers inserting special requests for money for home-state projects in spending bills — is a longtime anti-Washington bugaboo for politicians running for office. Many find that, once in office, requests from constituents for help on a particular project is too tough to resist and support bringing that kind of money home to their states and districts.
"John McCain's idea of changing Washington is a vice-presidential candidate who, as governor, requested more pork per person than any other state in the country," said Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor.
Phony Controversy Careful of the video its from FOX news
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Comments: 23
How do the "Presidential Candidates" stack up on the earmark totals?
Let's look,
"Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) 2007 rating was 10 percent, making his lifetime score 18 percent. The 2008 Congressional Pig Book contained 53 earmarks worth $97.4 million for Sen. Obama, including $1,648,850 for the Shedd Aquarium.
• Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) received the worst possible rating in 2007 with 0 percent, while his lifetime rating is 22 percent. According to the Pig Book, Sen. Biden had 70 earmarks for a total of $119.7 million in fiscal year 2008, including $246,100 for the Grand Opera House in Wilmington.
• Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) received a score of 100* percent and has a lifetime rating of 88, has never requested nor received a single earmark, and has pledged to veto any spending bill that contains any earmarks."
http://swineline.org/2008/08/28/pork-in-the-presidential-race/
www.cagw.org
yup no contest there.
Thanks for that clarification. Also the Bridge to nowhere was voted on by both Obama and Biden. Guess what their vote was...YES
* Should be included in Webster's list of new words.
Thanks for that clarification. Also the Bridge to nowhere was voted on by both Obama and Biden. Guess what their vote was...YES "
You do realize this was embedded in a bill that had nothing to do with this bridge, I hope......well, no, you probably didn't. A yes vote on the bill didn't indicate support of the bridge to nowhere, but even if it did, it's nice they could agree on something with Palin, now isn't it?
What was McCain's earmark request?
Here let me help you with that $0.0 Repeat! $0.0
Thank you!
Again? What was McCains earmark request compared to Obamas? Again let me help you!
McCain $0.0
Pork and earmarks include money voted to give to the Jews and every other puppet regime the criminal republican party supports.
Want to run some figures and see who voted for the most earmarks to foreign countries in order to gain favors?
You claim you do not like pork and are standing up for the biggest porker of all in the smallest populated state in the union? That's typical republican campaigning.