Posted on 09/10/2008 9:51:46 AM PDT by pissant
Senator Jim DeMint has provided a clear voice against the corruption of pork-barrel spending, often castigating his own party while doing so. Along with John McCain, Tom Coburn, and Russ Feingold (D-WI), he has demanded that Congress act to stop the waste and influence peddling that earmarks subsidize. As such, he has a clear understanding of those who represent change, and those who offer business as usual, and he makes the distinction clear in his essay in the Wall Street Journal, emphases mine:
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Mrs. Palin used her veto pen to slash more local projects than any other governor in the state’s history. She cut nearly 10% of Alaska’s budget this year, saving state residents $268 million. This included vetoing a $30,000 van for Campfire USA and $200,000 for a tennis court irrigation system. She succinctly justified these cuts by saying they were “not a state responsibility.”
Meanwhile in Washington, Mr. Obama voted for numerous wasteful earmarks last year, including: $12 million for bicycle paths, $450,000 for the International Peace Museum, $500,000 for a baseball stadium and $392,000 for a visitor’s center in Louisiana.
Mrs. Palin cut Alaska’s federal earmark requests in half last year, one of the strongest moves against earmarks by any governor. It took real leadership to buck Alaska’s decades-long earmark addiction.
Mr. Obama delivered over $100 million in earmarks to Illinois last year and has requested nearly a billion dollars in pet projects since 2005. His running mate, Joe Biden, is still indulging in earmarks, securing over $90 million worth this year.
Mrs. Palin also killed the infamous Bridge to Nowhere in her own state. Yes, she once supported the project: But after witnessing the problems created by earmarks for her state and for the nation’s budget, she did what others like me have done: She changed her position and saved taxpayers millions. Even the Alaska Democratic Party credits her with killing the bridge.
When the Senate had its chance to stop the Bridge to Nowhere and transfer the money to Katrina rebuilding, Messrs. Obama and Biden voted for the $223 million earmark, siding with the old boys’ club in the Senate. And to date, they still have not publicly renounced their support for the infamous earmark.
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Who really represents change? Certainly not the duo that earmarks tens of millions of dollars every year, and in Obama’s case hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Obama and Biden have participated in the spoils system that enables massive, wasteful spending by essentially bribing legislators with home-town projects to bolster their political power. Obama even earmarked federal money for his wife’s employer without a thought as to the conflict of interest that represents.
Obama now wants to attack Sarah Palin for changing her mind on the Bridge to Nowhere. That would certainly be reasonable if Obama had ever opposed it himself. It might be reasonable if Obama chose to defend the $200 million boondoggle that would have served all of 50 people in Alaska. But neither are true; Obama has not admitted that his votes to support the Bridge to Nowhere were a mistake, nor has he offered a reason why Palin’s change of mind should be criticized.
John McCain opposed the earmark all along, as he opposes all earmarks. Sarah Palin has cut earmarks at some political risk in Alaska, and eventually made the right decision on the Ketchikan Bridge. What has Barack Obama done to eliminate wasteful government spending and stop earmarks? What has Biden done?
They’re the problem, not the solution. The more they talk about earmarks, the more this becomes apparent. McCain and Palin have actually taken action to reduce earmarks and curb pork-barrel spending, while Obama and Biden have only fed at the trough.
Jim DeMint is a solid guy. Wish we had more like him in the GOP.
Bumping for the truth.
Please forward to NPR. Their McCain/Palin embed stated (smugly) that Palin only cancelled the bridge after Congress already did it - without a whiff of any other interpretation. You could almost see the main commentator with that grinch smile/smirk. They need to chew some crow.
Maybe this whole “controversy” is a big setup that Mac has set for the rats in the debates, after all. They will be cocksure about Palin being disingenuous then they will get wacked by the facts, one after another, in the debates.
We moved from Illinois to South Carolina to:
1. Get away from Chicago political machine hacks like Obama.
2. Get away from the taxes hacks like Obama, Stroger & Daley love so much.
3. Get away from the distgustiong liberal CPS school system.
4. Get away from the violence that Obama’s disarmed city has to offer.
5. Get to a state that has leaders like Sanford and Demint (-Graham)
Every time I hear some media person or Obama surrogate call Palin’s opposition to the “Bridge to Nowhere” a lie, I want to throw this in their face. Obama and Biden voted for the bridge. At no point did they ever oppose it. They have no standing to criticize someone who did in fact put an end to the project for once and for all.
Palin/DeMint ‘12! lol
Obama-Biden= porky pigs
He must have read the warnings that many of our founders gave us. Try looking at "The Anti-Federalist Papers Index"
http://patriotpost.us/antifedpapers/antifedpapers.html
Because of public schooling the language is above the pay grade of most of us but a good off line dictionary (the dead tree kind) is a great help and the definitions don't change for political correctness.
“Obama-Biden= porky pigs”
Yup, without any lipstick to pretty themselves up eith either.
How can you tell when a liberal is a liar? They are breathing.
4. Get away from the violence that Obama’s disarmed city has to offer.”
More people were killed in Chicago this summer than were killed in uniform of the USA in IRAQ.....
Over twice as many.
Amen! He’s one reason I’m proud to be from South Carolina.
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