McCain Adds NASA Funding To List Of Exemptions From His Spending Freeze
McCain Adds NASA Funding To List Of Exemptions From His Spending Freeze
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) frequently faults “wasteful spending” and “earmarks” as contributing to the current economic crisis, and has campaigned on a promise to take a “hatchet” to the federal budget and to impose a spending freeze on all non-essential government spending. However, the Wall Street Journal reports that, in an effort to court Florida voters, McCain has now pledged to increase funding for NASA, a major employer in the state:
During a visit to Florida last week, Sen. McCain said he, too, favors an additional $2 billion in spending. Asked by a local TV station, News 13, about his broader pledge to freeze spending and whether that would affect NASA’s budget, he said: “Of course not, of course not. It means we’re going to move money around….Space is vital.”
A McCain spokesman, Tucker Bounds, said on Wednesday that Sen. McCain’s NASA initiative would be exempt from the promised budget freeze.
NASA is the latest program to be added to the McCain campaign’s growing list of exemptions to his supposedly frozen budget:
– “Defense, Veterans Care, Social Security and Health Care“: “I will freeze government spending on all but the most important programs like defense, veterans care, Social Security and health care.” [McCain speech, 10/13/08]
– “Science“: The McCain budget plan includes “a specific carve-out for spending on science.” “You’ll definitely see, under John McCain, more spending on research.” [Senior Policy Adviser Ike Brannon, 10/14/08]
– “Worker Retraining“: “We have to impose a spending freeze to cover all but the most vital functions of government, like worker retraining.” [Palin, 10/13/08]
– “Several Other Issues“: “I think we ought to seriously consider [a spending freeze] with the exceptions the caring of veterans, national defense, and several other vital issues.” [McCain, 9/26/08]
A spending freeze that exempts health care, military and veterans programs, and entitlement spending has very little left to freeze, as illustrated by this chart showing the breakdown of the federal budget from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities:
Backing off from a reckless and ill conceived promise is not new to McCain. When it was pointed out that his war against earmarks could eliminate funding for Israel and military housing, he immediately back-peddled, saying he just objected to the “process,” not the actual earmarks. When pressed, he couldn’t even identify a single earmark he would actually cut.
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22 Responses to “McCain Adds NASA Funding To List Of Exemptions From His Spending Freeze”
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If you have a spending freeze on education, you in effect have a cut in education spending when you consider inflation and population increase.
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:54 pmMcGrampa's campaign is finished:
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/
Game over.
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:57 pmDr. Hussein Matt Says:
McGrampa’s campaign is finished:
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/
Going by that, if someone was betting on Obama, they would have to give the other guy 25-1 odds!
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:00 pmMcCon says sweet talking always worked for him in Rio.
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:02 pmDoc Rock, today he "Blames It On Rio".
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:11 pmSpace is vital, and but also solid type things are vivacious!
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:13 pmAnd what about clothing allowances?
“Of course not, of course not. It means we’re going to move money around….Clothing is vital.”
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:16 pmWasteful spending? Try our illegal,criminal, imperial occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. We could have all had free universal health care with that money, but noooo, the little lying war criminals Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld just had to have their little wars of aggression, cheerleaded or course, by McCain the Warmonger...
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:39 pmHe does this all the time - swears he's going to cut all earmarks, but when presented with a list of specific earmarks, takes back each one. Even bear DNA studies. Swear he's going to freeze all spending, but when presented with a list of spending categories, walks 'em all back.
It's easy to say you're going to slash "everything." It takes actual political courage to look at any one program, look at the people who it benefits, and saying "I'm taking this away from you." And from what I've seen of his campaign, courage he ain't got.
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:41 pmDid you see the video of Ron Howard and Andy Griffith reprising their Mayberry roles for Obama, and Ron and Henry Winkler doing their Happy Days skit? Priceless!
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:53 pmLink?
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:54 pmYahoo has it on their main page :)
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:55 pmEven an Al Bundy, Married with Children one.
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:56 pmSorry, here the link. I got excited
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20081023/pl_ynews/ynews_pl108
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:01 pmThanks, voice of reason. :)
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:02 pmI hope they run these a tv a lot, because I never thought I'd ever see Ron do Opie again
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:09 pmThis is one of those moments when Lumpy McHoover is at his most infuriating. In this case, where NASA's concerned, he's right for the wrong reasons. His NASA remarks were cynically given solely for purposes of political pandering.
As a child of the Space Age, I grew up seeing the beauty, the fascinating possibilities and inherent adventure in our exploration of space. THAT's why NASA is important. It marks the frontier of human endeavor. Yes, many good jobs are involved, but they serve a genuinely higher (literally and figuratively) higher purpose.
Sadly, Lumpy and his Doofus do-nothing, know-less party have stymied the most noble goals of NASA, going all the way back to Richard Pinhead Nixon's decision to cut the Apollo Program's throat. That evil old freak singlehandedly put the United States a generation behind where we ought to be in space.
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:17 pmOh dear. The Reichwhiners are going to have a field day with "Opie" and "Ritchie". I can just hear Lush Rimjob saying, "Rabid communist Ron Howard want's to nuke your kids' school". Or some such rot.
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:28 pmOT: Anyone else out there think that the economic/financial crisis could lead to a one world currency and a one world government?
I was reading an article on Sunday from the AP titled Bush to hold Summit to fix financial system
and kind of got a chill when I read a quote from Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission and a comment made by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
"We need a new global financial order. The European Union and the U.S., We can make a difference together" -- Jose Manuel Barroso
The article went to say that Nicolas Sarkozy has floated the idea of reforming rating agencies and even exploring the future of the currency system.
A month ago I came across a transcript from an IMF seminar titled "One world economy/One world currency where one of the IMF panelists stated that he could see some countries not wanting to give up their countries respective currency BUT he went on, any company or corporation that does business in the global economy would benefit from a one world currency.
We all know who runs the world, banksters and corporations, so I imagine a one world currency may be in our future.
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:42 pmWe've had a world currency since the end of WW2. It's called oil.
October 24th, 2008 at 12:05 amMcMoron's policies are a work in progress everyday someone points out a glaring flaw or omission he races to pity pat pander over there and give them their desire He'll be walking the streets offering oral sex before it's over
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