John McCain's Earmark Queen
John McCain has made stamping out earmarks one of his main issues as a politician. Remember all the mileage he got out of opposing the $1 million earmark for a Woodstock museum?
Given his strong and longstanding opposition to earmarks it is especially impressive that he would be willing to pick someone like Sarah Palin for vice-president. As the Washington Post reports this morning, Governor Pallin managed to secure $27 million (as in 27 Woodstock museums) in earmarks for her little town of 6,700 back when she was mayor. That comes to more than $4000 per person.
While I have often mocked the anti-earmark crusaders as wasting our time with trivia (the cost of the Woodstock Museum was 0.00003 percent of federal spending), Governor Palin's take for her little town would amount to real money. If every mayor was as successful at taking in federal largess as Governor Palin was for her little town, the tab would be $1.2 trillion, well over one-third of the federal budget. That is serious cash. (in fairness, Governor Palin collected her haul over several years, so the comparison to single year's budget is not entirely appropriate)
So Senator McCain must be applauded for his pick, making his ticket a stunning portrait in contrasts: age-youth, experience-inexperience, man-woman, earmark fighter - earmark queen.
Who would have thunk Sarah was a pork barrel advocate.
One of McCain's favorite earmark targets at town hall meetings has to do with studying the DNA of bears, which got $3 million. He gets a laugh out of this when he says something like, he doesn't know if its for paternity or crime.
1- He never addresses why the DNA is being studied.
2- He didn't try to remove the Bear earmark from the bill.
3- He voted for the bill with the Bear earmark in it.
September 2, 2008 8:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Before McCain there was Proxmire. One of his targets was a study of the arctic tern which migrates from pole to pole every year. Oh, was he indignant. The tern does rest and refuel on a few isolated islands in between. One of the most isolated was being considered as an ideal spot for testing of biological weapons. Never saw him mention that.
I don't know if there was a practical application for studying bear DNA, but there might be. Lots of human-bear interaction in Alaska. Even if the study was pure science, there is utility to knowing more. And in Hardy's autobiography, he comforts himself with the thought that his math would never be perverted to military use. But then WWII came along, and his work became quite useful.
September 2, 2008 12:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
zeno,
the money, $3 Million, was spread out over 5 years and it was for a population study of Grizzlies in Montana.
September 2, 2008 3:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
so why make it?
over playing his hands is costing the gambler the election.
there's no reason for you to overplay this hand.
September 2, 2008 9:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
I thought she was only gov for less than 2 years, so how did she manages this? Also, she is a gov, not a senator, so she cant earmark anything, the author is just an idiot.
September 2, 2008 11:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
theClever,
I'm sure you know that most earmarks originate outside of Congress where they're called 'request
for a constituent service'.
September 2, 2008 11:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Not-so-CleverBulldog,
Palin collected the loot as Mayor Palin of Wasilla. It's mentioned in the post that you attack. You should read more carefully. Look in paragraphs 2 and 3.
September 2, 2008 12:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who would have thunk Sarah was a pork barrel advocate.
She's from Alaska, the land of rugged individualists who take the most federal money compared to what they put in of any state in the union.
September 2, 2008 1:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
$4,000 per person from U.S. Taxpayers to the "Alaska First" town of Wasilla!
My city of Oakland, California, has a population of 400,000 ...
Trying to multiply out 4,000 x 400,000 I got lost in all the zeros. It's either $1.6 billion or $16 billion.
Either way, Thanks Taxpayers!
(Now, for the rest of you, I'm going to argue for strict accountability and an end to wasteful spending.)
September 2, 2008 3:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
This isn't surprising. I thought it was well-known that the majority of this kind of earmarks, or pork barrel spending, or whatever, went to podunk little towns that couldn't possibly support themselves otherwise. And to podunk regions of the country that would otherwise be entirely unviable economically. What makes these subsidies different from the ones that don't go to Oakland or Los Angeles or Detroit is that they benefit white people.
September 2, 2008 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dean, this is ridiculous. Getting money for a youth center, transportation improvements, and sewer repairs is hardly pork barrel. What, are they supposed to be privately funded?
Money for a Woodstock Museum SHOULD be privately funded. Any government money for that could definitely be construed as pork barrel.
September 3, 2008 1:09 PM | Reply | Permalink