Earmarks: McCain Zero - Obama 326

Earmarks:  McCain Zero - Obama 326:

“Earmarks” are those Congressional funds specifically guided to the “pet projects” of elected representatives, also called “pork.”

John McCain is against earmarks and the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense says he has not requested any that they can find and report.

Senator Obama and Senator Joe Biden are a different story, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) requested 326 projects worth $860.6 million between FY2006 and FY2008, according to a Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) analysis of earmark requests disclosed by the Senator. Sen. Obama did not request any earmarks for FY2009.

The variance between this number and other published reports occurs because TCS did not include requests for four national projects appearing on Sen. Obama’s FY08 request list. TCS did not include these as earmarks in any of the FY08 lawmaker tabulations.
.
The Senator averaged nearly $286.9 million per year in earmark requests over the period he requested earmarks. However, over his term in the U.S. Senate (including the year he did not request earmarks) his four year average was $215.1 million.

The earmark request numbers are higher than the dollar amount of earmarks obtained. As an example, of the $321.8 million requested by the senator in FY2008, the final appropriations bills contained $98.6 million of Senator Obama’s original requests.  (continue reading at Peace and Freedom '08)

Comments

[Garth]

Meanwhile, how about that Sarah Palin?

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2008/palin_earmarks.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/01/AR2008090103148.html

[Debbie]

How about this Garth:

http://councilfor.cagw.org/site/News2?abbr=CCAGW_&page=NewsArticle&id=11594

[Faultline USA]

Good research there. Amazing when the truth gets out.

[Paul]

I just heard Senator Obama say that earmarks are a serious problem when trying to achieve fiscal discipline. He did say at a speech in Greenbay, Wisconsin that he did not accept earmarks last year !
His statement is not accurate .

[Oregon4Obama]

Thanks for the info on earmarks

Listen, earmarks by themselves are NOT a bad thing. They go to improve roads, schools, fund projects that can help out society etc......

Have their been "bridges to nowhere" yes, but its a case by case situation.....

But McCain is being cited elsewhere for his voting record.....I did my own research and found mccain said no to taxing tobacco companies 60 cents for a pack of cigs. that money was to go to childrens programs.......

Another one was for not wanting to give our troops more benefits.....once in 2005 and the most recent was in febuary or march of this year......

but hey this is about earmarks.....his running mate Palin has requested the most ammount per capita than any other state.....and she did try to build a bridge to nowhere, and when she turned against it, she kept the money and built a road to the proposed site for the bridge........

So again, earmarks are not evil, they go to support some noble projects....

[PB]

One problem with earmarks is that of attachmant to important bills.The president does not have a line item veto to "prevent" abuse.There are worthy causes that deserve tax payer attention but these should be taken up by congress in separate bills.Someone needs to set spending priorities for what's important .
I watch C-Span and listened to congressman Steny Hoyer defend a bill allocating money for tobacco research to the tune of over $400 million .
This does not seem like a useful expenditure of tax payers money !

[Debbie]

Oregon4Obama and PB, good points. Earmarks are sometimes useful and go to needed things in States.

I do not think that 'extras' should be attached to bills presented for completely different things. If these projects are necessary and worthy, they should stand on their own merits though.

Paul. I heard Obama, glad you brought that out.

[Ragamuffin]

"McCain Falsely Claims He Has ‘Never Asked For A Single Earmark Or Pork Barrel Project’ For His State"

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/06/mccain-earmark/