Truth Detector

I love this debate. So does this mean that the Independents and Democrats on this forum will now support eliminating earmarks and pork barrel politics in Washington?

Can we all make a pact to argue for the political defeat of ALL politicians in Washington who continue this practice?

If we cannot, then I can only presume you are all Liberal hypocrites who believe that earmarks and pork barrel politics are only okay if it is a Liberal practicing it.

Yesterday on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Harry Reid was caught pulling out every stop to kill his own party's plan for earmark reform.

So Senate Republicans, led by South Carolina's Jim DeMint, cheekily took the identical language of the House earmark bill and offered it as an amendment to the Senate version. Numerous Democrats instantly denounced it, apparently unaware (or unconcerned) that the language had been sponsored by Ms. Pelosi.

The seven Republicans who went along with Mr. Reid included some of the GOP's biggest spenders (Trent Lott) and Members of the Appropriations Committee

Mr. Reid was considering filing for cloture on the entire ethics bill, thereby foreclosing a vote on the current DeMint amendment

Earmark Entertainment | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington

In the House, there were three “Taxpayer Super Heroes” with a grade of 100 percent: Reps. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.). There were 59 “Taxpayer Heroes” with a grade of 80 percent or above. In 2006, there was one “Taxpayer Super Hero” and 40 “Taxpayer Heroes” so there was an improvement. On the lower end of the scale, there were two House members, both Democrats, who received a score of zero in 2007. In 2006, there were nine members with a zero rating.

The average scores were: House Republicans 60 percent, up 14 percentage points from their grade of 46 percent in 2006; House Democrats 5 percent, down 4 percentage points from their 9 percent score in 2006; House Republican Study Committee 73 percent, up 17 percentage points from their 56 percent score in 2006; and House Blue Dog Democrats 11 percent, down 9 percentage points from their 20 percent score in 2006.

In the Senate for 2006, there were no Taxpayer Super Heroes and unfortunately, that did not change for 2007. However, Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), and John Ensign (R-Nev.) came close with scores of 97 percent. On the other end of the scale, 13 senators had a zero rating.

http://councilfor.cagw.org/site/Page...ings_AtaGlance

House Highest
Republican: Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) 100%

Democrat: Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) 69%

House Lowest
Republican: Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) 11%

Democrats: Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) and John Sarbanes (D-Md.) 0%

Senate Highest
Republicans: Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), and John Ensign (R-Nev.) 97%

Democrat: Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) 34%

Senate Lowest
Republican: Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) 17%

Democrats: Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), Joe Biden (D-Del.), Robert Byrd (D- W.Va.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Kent Conrad (D- N.D.), Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) all at 0%


Carry on!

shuamort

I'm all for it. I'm against all of these funding initiative. The news this morning I read about the US sending $1B to the country of Georgia pissed me off and that's not even considered "pork".

shuamort

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.

In 2001, McCain's list of spending that had been approved without the normal budget scrutiny included a $500,000 earmark for a public transportation project in Wasilla. The Arizona senator targeted $1 million in a 2002 spending bill for an emergency communications center in town -- one that local law enforcement has said is redundant and creates confusion.

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.

Wasilla had received few if any earmarks before Palin became mayor. She actively sought federal funds -- a campaign that began to pay off only after she hired a lobbyist with close ties to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who long controlled federal spending as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He made funneling money to Alaska his hallmark.

Truth Detector

Foreign aid is more in line with the US Constitution duties of our Federal Government however. It is in our nation’s best interests to protect the American people and American interests. Georgia is an ally who is being militarily threatened by a much larger belligerent neighbor.

Pork barrel spending for the sake of pandering for votes does not.

I am surprised you are pissed at this as I didn't think you were even an American citizen. Why does this aid piss you off? Do you get equally pissed off with the billions we send to the Palestinians; Africa?

Truth Detector

Last time I looked, Palin was not responsible for earmark spending in Congress as she has never been a congresswoman. But I appreciate the desperate attempt to paint Palin as a big Government spender which illustrates the desperation and frustration of those who want to promote a Democrat tax and spend agenda over a Republican shake up the old guard agenda.

As noted above, the biggest pigs at the public trough of pork legislation are Democrats.

It illustrates that REAL change is represented by the Republican ticket as opposed to more of the same old Democrat pork barrel promise pie-in-the-sky politics of the Obama campaign. Democrats have always been much better at talking the talk over walking the walk.

Carry on with your desperate campaign.

shuamort

Did she or did she not ask for these bits of legislation via corrupt politician Ted Stevens?

Binary_Digit

Ever heard of Jose Padilla? The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 allows the suspension of habeas corpus for "enemy combatants". The Military Commissions Act of 2006 allows for U.S. Citizens to be labeled "enemy combatants." John McCain voted for both acts.

Say what? Have you even read the Constitution??

shuamort

Please show me where in the Constitution it talks about foreign aid.


Foreign aid is a system by which the American taxpayers are forced, in the name of national security or defense of the “free world,” or charity, or whatever the politicians tell us, to subsidize US export companies and prop up client states that are often ruled by dictators.

Constitutionally, of course, none of this spending is authorized. The US Constitution was written under what is referred to as “positive grant.” In short, what this means is that the federal government is authorized to engage in only those activities specifically authorized by the Constitution. Positive = authorized activities. Grant = specifically listed.

Just to make sure this principle was legally codified, the Tenth Amendment was included:

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Yup, I am equally pissed whenever my dollar goes overseas.

Truth Detector

What difference does it make if any politician asks for Federal money? That is what they do. The money os offered, they will take it. The Governor of California has his hand out too. Democrats all over the land have their hands out too.

Is your premise that Palin, who has had this experience and is now a champion against earmarks based on personal experience and leadership, is not qualified to be VP because she changed her mind about Federal pork?

If anything this makes her even more qualified as she has first hand experience with it and can make a strong argument against earmarks based on that experience.

Obama on the other hand has no first hand experience with this.

Want to see his latest earmark request list? It's HUGE!

Obama Announces FY08 Federal Funding Requests
Thursday, June 21, 2007 Printable FormatDiscloses earmarks to improve government transparency

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today announced that he had requested federal funding for the following projects, in the amounts designated by his constituents and several national organizations, as part of this year's annual appropriations process:

Adler Planetarium, to support replacement of its projector and related equipment, $3,000,000

AIDSCARE, Inc., for general operating support, $750,000

AIDSCARE, Inc., for completion of the North Lawndale Campus, $2,000,000

Aledo, IL, to support its replacement of two aging water towers, $750,000

American Red Cross of Illinois, for emergency preparedness, $5,000,000

American Theater Company, for the construction of a new facility in Logan Square, $200,000

Army Corps of Engineers in the Chicago District of Illinois, to support permanent construction of the Asian Carp Barrier, $7,500,000

Army Corps of Engineers in the Chicago District of Illinois, to support Operations and Maintenance of the permanent Asian Carp Barrier, $1,000,000

Army Corps of Engineers in the City of Rock Island, to support construction of Sunset Marina Harbor Entrance Improvements, $500,000

Army Corps of Engineers in Illinois, to support project UMR-IWW System Navigation Study, IL, IA, MN, MO, & WI, $24,000,000

Aurora University, to the Center for Latino Leadership and Education, $400,000

Benedictine University in Lisle, for the First Responder Program – An Education Initiative for Public Safety Officers and Iraqi and Afghanistan Veterans, $1,750,000

Carpentersville, IL, for the Carpentersville Community Response Team, $500,000

Carthage, IL, to develop the Illinois 336 Corridor Carthage Exchange, $1,350,000

Center for Advanced Design, Research, and Exploration (CADRE) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, for development of rapid wound healing therapies, $4,800,000

Center for Advanced Design, Research, and Exploration (CADRE) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, to develop a hand-held device used in combat, $2,000,000

Channahon, IL, for road upgrades, $12,000,000

Chicago Children's Advocacy Center, for Facility Improvements, Renovations, and Expansion of the Chicago Children's Advocacy Center for child abuse support services, $500,000

Chicago Children's Museum, for the construction of a new Chicago Children's Museum facility, $1,000,000

Chicago Children's Museum, for its Community Health and Wellness Initiatives, $300,000

Chicago Park District, for the development of DuSable Park, $3,000,000

Chicago Public Schools, for their Chicago Reading Initiative: Supported Literacy Programs, $4,000,000

Chicago State University, for research into unmanned aerial systems, $5,000,000

Chicago State University, to develop a sustainable and portable power system for military operation, $5,000,000

Chicago State University, to the HIV/ AIDS Policy and Research Institute, $1,000,000

Children's Memorial Hospital, for the construction of Children's Memorial Hospital Intensive Care Unit Facilities, $3,000,000

Columbia College Department of Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling in Chicago, for its A.I.M. Program in partnership with the Jesse Brown Veterans Administration Medical Center, $3,000,000

Easter Seals Metropolitan Chicago (ESMC), for its therapeutic School and Center for Autism Research, $1,500,000

Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities in Springfield, for its Training Health Professionals program, $500,000

Field Museum, for roof repair and rainwater diversion, $4,900,000

Field Museum, to support the expansion of the Halls of the Americas, $1,000,000

Franklin Park, IL, for construction of the Grand Avenue Underpass in Chicago, IL to ease congestion and increase traffic safety, $3,000,000

Galesburg, IL, to support construction of a new water treatment facility at the Oquawka, Illinois facility along the Mississippi River, $1,500,000

Governors State University, for the Center of Excellence in Health Professions Education, $1,000,000

Illinois Central College, for its Central Illinois Collaborative Advanced Manufacturing Workforce Initiative, $3,000,000

Illinois Institute of Technology, for research into impact-resistant materials, $1,500,000

Illinois Institute of Technology, to support its Integrated Advance Energy Systems Research Initiative, $750,000

Illinois Primary Health Care Association (IPHCA), for the Electronic Health Record Project IPHCA, $2,000,000

Illinois State University, for the Chicago Teacher Education Pipeline Programs and Partnerships, $300,000

Illinois State University, for the Great Lakes Teacher and Preparation Leadership Preparation Consortium, $500,000

Illinois State University, to improve manufacturing competitiveness with further development of the Integrated Manufacturing Laboratory (IML), $500,000

Johnsburg, IL, to support construction of additional sewer lines, $2,000,000

Lake County, for its Integrated Criminal Justice Information System, $1,000,000

Lee County Highway Department in Amboy, Illinois, for road upgrades, $300,000

Lewis and Clark Community College, for its mobile health clinic to provide healthcare services to rural areas, $350,000

Lewis University Airport in Romeoville, for the extension of its primary runway, $3,420,000

Long Creek, IL, to support construction of new water towers to increase its water capacity, $660,000

Loretto Hospital, for the Launa Thompson Women's Health Pavilion, $550,000

Loyola University Chicago, to the Center for School District Leadership for distance learning, $1,000,000

Manteno, IL, to connect existing and proposed parks in Kankakee County as part of the Manteno Greenways Trail System, $860,475

Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center in Rock Island, for the renovation and expansion of the Center, $1,000,0000

McHenry County, for its Sheriff's Office law enforcement communication system, $1,000,000

McHenry County, to widen Miller Road, $500,000

McHenry County, for Flexible and Sustainable Training Solutions Initiative, $600,000

Memorial Hospital, for necessary equipment upgrades for vascular disease diagnostics and screenings, $1,800,000

Memorial Medical Center, for Advanced Flatplate Cardiac Catherization/Electrophysiology Laboratory, $1,000,000

Metra, to expand and improve service, $65,000,000

MetroLiNK Transit in Rock Island, to build a new state-of-the-art MetroLiNK Maintenance Facility, $5,000,000

Millikin University School of Nursing, for the expansion and upgrade of their nursing program, $500,000

Mobile C.A.R.E. Foundation in Chicago, for the acquisition and operation of Asthma Vans, $300,000

Moline, IL, for the design and construction of River Tech Boulevard Road, $1,595,000

Moline, IL, to address congestion in the I-74 Corridor, $8,000,000

Morrison, IL, for construction of a railroad overpass, $3,812,000

Mount Carroll, IL, to support reconstruction of its water distribution system, $2,000,000

Mujeres Latinas en Accion, for the Parent Support Program and Women in Transition Program, $295,000

National Center for Family Literacy, for its Family Literacy for All Expansion, $250,000

National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, for its cybersecurity initiative, $7,500,000

National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, for its Technology Research, Education and Commercialization Center (TRECC), $5,000,000

National Myoclonus Center, for the expansion of the National Myoclonus Center, $400,000

Normal, IL, for the construction of a multimodal transportation center, $10,000,000

Northeastern Illinois Sewer Consortium, for sanitary and storm sewer system upgrades, $500,000

Truth Detector

continued.....

Oakwood, IL, to replace its water distribution system, $836,000

Ogle County Highway Department, for the Southwest Rochelle Truck Loop, $150,000

Olympia Fields, IL, to make safety upgrades and improvements of the 203rd Street and Crawford Avenue, $1,000,000

Oregon, IL, for Route 251 & Steward Road Intersection Improvements, $125,000

Orland Park, IL, to expand U.S. 45, $450,000

PACE Suburban Bus, to replace the radio system in all of its 672 fixed route buses, $2,500,000

Patterson, IL, to support replacement of its "Drake Road" water main, $138,000

Peoria, IL, to support its construction of its combined sewer overflow replacement, $500,000

Poder Learning Center, for workforce training program, $200,000

Regional Climate Center, for the Midwestern Regional Climate Center (MRCC)/Illinois State Water Survey, $6,000,000

Riverside Healthcare, for a Computerized Physician Order Entry system for Kankakee, IL, $2,000,000

Rochelle, IL, for phase two of the Jack Dame Road/Union Pacific Railroad Overpass, $1,000,000

Rock Island Arsenal, to repair the roof on Building 299 for additional manufacturing space, $6,200,000

Rock Island Arsenal, to support a more robust capability to rapidly produce up-armor vehicle kits, $10,500,000

Rock Island Arsenal, to renovate and expand Rock Island Arsenal's combined Fire and Police Station facility, $3,500,000

Rock Island Arsenal, to support the development and enhancement of flexible lightweight metal technology, $1,350,000

Rockford College, to enhance classrooms, $490,000

Saint Xavier University, for nursing skills lab equipment, $500,000

Saint Xavier University, for the expansion of an early childhood professional development center, $900,000

Shawneetown, IL, to support updates and replacement of its water distribution system, $550,000

Shedd Aquarium, for its At-Risk Youth Mentoring Initiative, $600,000

Spark College, for real-time writers and captioning training project, $750,000

Southern Illinois University, for the National Corn to Ethanol Research Center, $2,000,000

Southern Illinois University, for the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, $1,025,000

Southern Illinois University, for the School of Medicine Simmons Cooper Cancer Institute, $2,200,000

Southern Illinois University, Purdue University, and University of Kentucky, for coal research, $5,000,000

Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), for the National Education, Science, and Critical Skills Capacity Building Initiative, $2,000,000

University of Illinois, College of Agriculture Consumer and Environmental Sciences, for the Center for Advanced Bioenergy Research, $1,000,000

University of Illinois, College of Agriculture Consumer and Environmental Sciences, for the Illinois-Missouri Biotechnology Alliance, $3,000,000

University of Illinois, College of Agriculture Consumer and Environmental Sciences, for the Illinois Program for Integrated Sustainable Agriculture, $2,500,000

University of Illinois, College of Agriculture Consumer and Environmental Sciences, for the Soybean Disease Biotechnology Center , $2,000,000

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Engineering, for Nanomedical Technologies, $3,000,000

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, to encourage further education in technical domains that can be cleared by the Defense Security Service, $2,000,000

University of Illinois, for the Urban Teaching and Leadership Center, $1,000,000

West Frankfort, IL, to support replacement of its Big Ditch Pumping Station, $550,000

Wetlands Initiative of Illinois, to support its Illinois River Nutrient Farm Pilot Project, $11,810,000

Women's Sports Foundation, for its GoGirlGo! Chicago Initiative, $1,000,000

Center for Civic Education, for its National Council for Economic Education, $33,000,000

National Writing Project, $30,000,000

Reach Out and Read, Inc, $10,000,000

YMCA of the USA, for pioneering for healthy communities, $5,000,000


Obama Announces FY08 Federal Funding Requests | U.S. Senator Barack Obama