McCain's Fantasy War on Earmarks
Michael DobbsWashington Post
The Fact Checker
Portland, OR, May 12, 2008.
"I can eliminate $100 billion of wasteful and earmark spending immediately--35 billion in big spending bills in the last two years, and another 65 billion that has already been made a permanent part of the budget." -- John McCain, NPR All Things Considered, April 23, 2008.John McCain boasts that he can save $100 billion a year "immediately" by eliminating the so-called earmarks that legislators attach to spending bills to finance pet projects, usually in their home state. But he has refused to say exactly which projects he would cut, and his estimates of the amount of money that is being spent on earmarks have been challenged by independent experts.
The Facts
The Arizona senator is promising to balance the budget by the end of his first term, while simultaneously extending the George W. Bush tax cuts, introducing billions of dollars of new tax cuts of his own, and remaining in Iraq as long as is necessary to stabilize that country. Asked how this miracle will be accomplished, McCain told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News This Week on April 20 that he could come up with $100 billion "tomorrow" by vetoing pork-barrel spending bills.
Here's $100 billion right here for you, George. Two years in a row, the last two years, the president of the United States has signed into law two big spending, pork barrel-laden bills with $35 billion (in earmarks). In the years before that, $65 billion. You do away with those, there's $100 billion right before you look at any agency.
Pouff! $100 billion in taxpayer money! Saved! Just like that! With a flick of the presidential veto pen!
(Continued here.)
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1 Comments:
They say an actor is typecast when he is always seen playing the same roles. You gotta love McCain when he’s wise-cracking it with Letterman or Stewart … or even his two stints on Saturday Night Live BUT when I watched the April 20th This Week broadcast, I felt I saw the same bit except McCain was supposed to be serious.
I am glad that Dobbs Fact Checked McCain’s statement. George Stephanopoulos called him out, but McCain just continued smiling and chanting that he could do it. This whole question of eliminating earmarks (that is being championed by John Kline, Boehner, etc.) is basically political illusion.
First off, earmarks just define how the money will be spent (build a bridge, foreign aid to Israel, etc.), eliminating earmarks doesn’t do anything unless you reduce the total amount being spent (reduce the Transportation budget, reduce the State budget, etc.).
Second, Republicans have repeatedly voted for earmark projects … without a line-item veto, does McCain think that Congress won’t override him … remember Bush’s veto of the Water bill that with 138 Republicans joined 223 Democrats in the House to override his veto.
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