Posted on 09/03/2008 12:22:32 PM PDT by steve-b
WASILLA, ALASKA -- For much of his long career in Washington, John McCain has been throwing darts at the special spending system known as earmarking, through which powerful members of Congress can deliver federal cash for pet projects back home with little or no public scrutiny. He's even gone so far as to publish "pork lists" detailing these financial favors.
Three times in recent years, McCain's catalogs of "objectionable" spending have included earmarks for this small Alaska town, requested by its mayor at the time -- Sarah Palin....
This year, Palin, who has been governor for nearly 22 months, defended earmarking as a vital part of the legislative system. "The federal budget, in its various manifestations, is incredibly important to us, and congressional earmarks are one aspect of this relationship," she wrote in a newspaper column.
McCain also criticized $450,000 set aside for an agricultural processing facility in Wasilla that was requested during Palin's tenure as mayor and cleared Congress soon after she left office in 2002. The funding was provided to help direct locally grown produce to schools, prisons and other government institutions, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog group....
[A]s a candidate for governor in 2006, Palin had backed funding for the bridge [to nowhere]. After her election, she killed the much-ridiculed project when it became clear the state had other priorities. She said she would use the federal funds to fill those needs.
This year she submitted to Congress a list of Alaska projects worth $197.8 million, including $2 million to research crab productivity in the Bering Sea and $7.4 million to improve runway lighting at eight Alaska airports. A spokesman said she cut the original list of 54 projects to 31....
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
So???
PDS Alert.
shows that McCain is more of a fiscal conservative than Palin!
It took 3 people do write this? No wonder they're laying off people right and left.
She never said she was against earmarks. She said she was against earmark abuses. There are legit reasons to have earmarks. One thing, Alaska shouldnt’ pay the full burden of the effects on their infrastructure by having government employees continually coming into their state and using their roads, etc., Those things need maintenance, and it is fair to help Alaska in that case.
Can anyone explain the last sentence? I thought she told the feds that if Alaskans want a bridge, they'll build it themselves.
Seems Palin cared more for people in her state than McCain did for folks in Arizona.
LOL. "Earmark abuses" = "earmarks for somebody else instead of me".
They just made McCain look good and worth voting for.
true but mccain is against all earmarks out of principle.
only if you think govt spending = “caring”
Sorry, bud...I’m not budging in my support of Palin. It’s obvious the MSM is nothing but a hall of mirrors distorting anything that helps conservatives and their candidates.
I’m in the foxhole with this ticket...quite a happy surprise compared to a couple of months ago.
steve-b PDS sufferer since 8/29/08
Every penny helps. Won’t you donate today to end the suffering?
End the tragedy this disease is causing.
When the Bridge to Nowhere became politically untenable (because the crooks in Washington got a light shone on them for once), Palin saw which way the wind was blowing and jumped ship... but kept the money and spent it on other equally vapid (but more discreet) boondoggles.
“This year she submitted to Congress a list of Alaska projects worth $197.8 million, including $2 million to research crab productivity in the Bering Sea and $7.4 million to improve runway lighting at eight Alaska airports.”
I don’t see a problem with these. Crab fishing is a big industry in Alaska. I know if I was a pilot, I would like to have good lighting on any runway I was trying to land on...call me crazy.
From, huh?
Snort.
Question for the LAT: Where do you get your staffers from, Jospeh Goebbels U?
Considering McCain’s inaction on the illegals problem in AZ, I’d say he doesn’t care at all.
Dangit, and Alaska has a surplus. I wonder, lets see Illinois, that is asking for the national Guard to fight crime in Chicago.
Chicago, Obama’s district in the red
http://www.topix.com/forum/source/chicago-tribune/TJE22PTCGLPEASQP8
such as?
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