No Change Here
Mar 13th, 2008 by Dave
From Leon at RedState:
It appears that Barack Obama, allegedly decent guy and agent of “change” in Washington, requested an earmark in 2006 for $1 million taxpayer dollars for the hospital where his wife works. Said hospital, by the way, gave Michelle Obama a huge raise (nearly $200,000, more than doubling her salary) in 2005 after Barack got elected to the United States Senate. Now, I know that there are lots of ways to talk about transactions like this involving public officials - quid pro quo, etc., but I prefer to call a crook a crook and just say that we’re dealing with good, old fashioned, public corruption here.
Here is the list of Obama earmarks from 2005-2006. There are plenty.
Here is the most comprehensive list to date of John McCain’s earmark requests since 2005:
<chirp, chirp>
That’s right: Zero.
Who’s bringing the change again?
The Democrats Disagree:
We have former members of Congress in jail as we speak because of this earmarking. We let spending get out of control. We presided over the largest increase in the size of government since the Great Society. And our constituents and our Republicans became dispirited and disenchanted. We’ve got to stop the earmarking. The bridge to nowhere, with 233 miles — a $233 million bridge to an island in Alaska with 50 people on it was the tipping point. I want to promise you, as president of the United States, I’ll veto every bill that has a pork-barrel project on it. And I’ll make the authors of it famous, and we’ll get spending under control, and we’ll stop the corruption in Washington.
McFacts: MCCAIN’S TOP FUNDRAISER IS A PORK LOBBYIST FOR EARMARKS AND BRIDGES:
Loeffler Earned $3.9 Million for Creating $40 Million in Federal Pork.
McCain’s new Presidential campaign consigliere, and chief fundraising strategist, Tom Loeffler, founder of Loeffler Group has spent much of the last decade as a lobbyist. According to documents filed with the Secretary of the Senate, Loeffler and his associates have collected $3,920,000 over the years lobbying from the Texas cities of San Antonio, Houston, Pharr, Donna and Mercedes. In return, according to Citizens Against Government Waste, the cities received $40 Million and possibly more in Federal Government pork. [Politico, 4/4/07; Washington Post, 4/4/07; Lobbyist Disclosure Documents Filled with Secretary of the Senate, Citizens Against Government Waste Pig Book 2003-06]
Loeffler Was Paid At Least $240,000 to Lobby for Bridge to Mexico.
In 2001 and 2002, The Loeffler Group was paid $240,000 by the Donna-Mercedes Bridge Board as compensation for efforts to lobby the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Transportation. The proposed bridge would connect the Rio Grande Valley cities of Donna and Mercedes to Rio Bravo, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, a city of 150,000 residents. Bridge advocates say it will improve commerce between the United States and Mexico and decrease air pollution along the Texas-Mexico border.[San Antonio Express-News, 4/19/02; http://www.publicintegrity.org
MCCAIN FIGHTS OTHERS PORK, PUSHES HIS OWN.
Arizona Sen. John McCain is sponsoring two interesting pieces of legislation. One mounts a direct assault on congressional earmarks, those little morsels of home district pork that lawmakers slip into unrelated spending bills. The other steers $10 million to the University of Arizona to launch an academic center honoring the late Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Yes, McCain does seem to be saying to himself: Stop me before I sin again McCain and co-sponsor Jon Kyl, Arizona’s other GOP senator, insist their pork proposal isn’t hypocritical because they aren’t trying to hide anything. It is set out in stand-alone legislation to be vetted on its own merits in Congress, it seems, the only bad pork projects are those sponsored by somebody else. [Chicago Tribune, 3/4/06]
MCCAIN BROKE HIS OWN PORK-BARREL SPENDING RULES.
After years of crusading against pork-barrel spending projects in Congressional appropriations bills, Senator McCain may be breaking his own rules. McCain pushed for, and got, $14.3 million for Arizona’s Luke Air Force Base inserted into the just-completed fiscal 2004 military construction appropriations conference report. The only problem is the project to acquire more land near the base was not requested
What about McCain’s wife’s uncle’s cousin’s mailman? Did he do something, too?
Come on. Obama got an earmark for his wife’s employer. If it was a Republican, he’d be indicted by now.
You guys shouldn’t be talking about our next President like that.
You’re right, Dis - Imagine how much Mrs. Obama will make if Barack wins? Don’t get in the way of the Obama family benefit package!
Funny. This reminds me of something a Republican representative had been doing for years and was recently outed for here in Delaware.
First of all, it’s not even remotely the same.
Secondly, no Delaware representative is running for leader of the free world.
That’s the best you can do, Dave? I’m disappointed in you…
You didn’t bring much, so I didn’t need much.
No, I’m just saying it’s standard-issue, defend-the-GOPer BS you generally proffer when one of your own is attacked. If you can’t see the parallels between what Wagner did and what Obama did, then you’re either intentionally blind or stupidly dense.
As for the “no Delaware representative is running for leader of the free world” comment, that idiotic piece of relativism speaks for itself.
Yeah. You’re right. Nancy Wagner is more qualified to be President than Obama. They should be held to the same standard. My bad.
And accusing me of defending the GOPer falls a wee bit flat champ.
“Champ?” For someone who prides himself on forwarding conversations, you do know how to be quite patronizing.
I suppose I’ll give up, because attempting to call you out on anything at any time is always met with your casual denials. Republicans can do no wrong. Republicans’ poo smells like roses. God loves Republicans.
If Republicans in the state all have the mentality that you do, then I can see why you guys keep losing elections.
Michele got a raise? Cheney is laughing, “I make more than that in an hour off my Halliburton blind trust!”
“I suppose I’ll give up, because attempting to call you out on anything at any time is always met with your casual denials. Republicans can do no wrong. Republicans’ poo smells like roses. God loves Republicans.
If Republicans in the state all have the mentality that you do, then I can see why you guys keep losing elections.”
Pick up a newspaper, Mike.
A whole million dollars?? TO A HOSPITAL!?
Jesus CHRIST, that’s like… that’s like 30% of the budget!!
Screw this, I’m going with one fifth of Keating.
It had to be a million dollars, or they couldn’t have afforded the wife’s raise.
Overall, McCain has been fiscally temperate…..in today’s world, all politicians buy votes. It’s just a matter of degree.