Anti-Pork McCain Speaks At New Jersey Museum Funded By Nearly $1 Million In Earmarks
Anti-Pork McCain Speaks At New Jersey Museum Funded By Nearly $1 Million In Earmarks
One of Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) signature campaign pledges is to “do away” with the “pork-barrel-laden bills” from the past few years. Today, McCain held an event at Liberty Science Center, the “most visited museum in New Jersey and one of the most intensively used in the country,” to discuss his environmental agenda.
But McCain’s event at Liberty Science Center conflicts with his promise to abolish earmarks from the federal budget. The museum, in fact, has been the beneficiary of multiple federal earmarks. For example, the Office of Management and Budget reported that in FY2005, the museum received $500,000 from a NASA earmark request:
An increase of $500,000 to the Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, New Jersey for the Hudson Harbor and Estuary Ecological Learning Center.
In FY2006, Liberty received another earmark, this time at $250,000, according to Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW).
Several of McCain’s campaign events have been set at places funded by “pork.” Last month, on the same day he called earmarks “an egregious process,” McCain spoke at a Florida air field that had received almost $10 million in earmarked funds between 2001 and 2005. He also rode on the ferry in Gee’s Bend, AL, a project funded by a federal earmark in the 2005 Transportation/Treasury Appropriations Act.
On May 1, McCain held a health care event at the Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, PA. There, he met a woman with ovarian cancer who was treated “in a $80 million clinical trial program funded by an earmark.” McCain then backtracked from his anti-earmark crusade, simply stating, “It’s the process I object to.”
But that excuse doesn’t hold up for the Liberty Science Center. CAGW reported that in 2006, NASA “added $273 million in earmarks, in conference, without a budget request from the agency.” These regular appearances at earmark-funded projects reflect the lack of thought in McCain’s plan to wholly abolish federal earmarking.
McCain Says He No Longer Objects To Earmarks, Just The ‘Process’
McCain Says He No Longer Objects To Earmarks, Just The ‘Process’
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has repeatedly pledged that if elected president, he “will veto every bill with earmarks.” But in recent months, McCain has slipped further and further away from that promise:
– After ThinkProgress pointed out that military housing and aid to Israel, McCain said that he would make an exception for certain projects.
– On April 24, McCain backtracked from his sweeping pledge, saying he would now judge spending cuts “on the basis of need.”
– McCain has repeatedly used earmark-funded projects and venues as backdrops to his campaign events.
Yesterday, McCain held a health care event at the Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, PA. While there he met Mary, a woman with ovarian cancer who was treated “in a $80 million clinical trial program funded by an earmark.” Confronted with this “human face of earmark spending,” McCain again backed away from his campaign rhetoric:
McCain praised the woman’s treatment and later said some earmarks were clearly worthy.
“It’s the process I object to,” McCain told reporters. “We need to start over from scratch.” […]
“When you earmark in the middle of the night you have no budgetary constraints,” he said.
As Politico’s Ben Smith notes, “That’s one thing about spending cuts: Much harder when you get to the details.”
Here’s the problem with McCain’s constant flipping: The reason the senator has said he opposes earmarks is because they are fiscally irresponsible. “No is always the right answer to wasteful spending,” according to McCain. Similarly, his campaign aides like to tout the costs McCain will supposedly save taxpayers by getting rid of all earmarks.
So now, if McCain is only opposed to the “process” and willing to fund some “worthy” earmarks, which programs will he cut to come up with that $95 billion in savings he has promised? So far, his campaign hasn’t been willing to give any specifics.
Don Young warns of ’slippery, slippery road.’
Yesterday, the House voted overwhelmingly to request a federal criminal investigation into a controversial $10-million earmark by Rep. Don Young (R-AK). In 2005, after Congress had voted on the highway funding bill, Young’s staff changed the language for the earmark, directing it to a controversial highway interchange in Florida. Yesterday, Young took to the House floor, claiming that “local people” supported the project:
After all the accusations and rumors about this bill, I hope this sets the record straight. This project was asked for by the community. … The Senate is meddling in House affairs. I’m supporting this bill. I welcome, if you want to welcome, an investigation into the House. But remember, that is a slippery slippery road we’re about to be involved in. … But keep in mind that coconut grove was not my idea. It was created and fostered by the local people of that community.
Watch it:
In reality, the interchange was “a low priority” for county officials. In fact, local officials ultimately “refused the money and asked Congress to let them use it for its original purpose.” But for Young donor Daniel Aronoff, it would have increased the value of his property — raising questions of impropriety.
Paul Kiel at TPM Muckraker has more.
McCain falsely claims he ‘never voted for a single earmark or pork barrel project.’
McCain falsely claims he ‘never voted for a single earmark or pork barrel project.’
In New Orleans today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) partially blamed the poor federal response to Hurricane Katrina on “the Congress of the United States” for funding “pork barrel projects” that were “not as important as some of the projects that were needed” in New Orleans. McCain then claimed that he had “never voted for a single earmark or pork barrel project.” But, as NBC’s Adam Aigner-Treworgy points out, that isn’t true:
While it is true that McCain has never sponsored an earmark — by the strict definition of the word — he has certainly voted for bills with earmarks, including some of the specific projects he criticizes most vocally on the campaign trail.
As ThinkProgress noted earlier today, McCain has a record of making sweeping claims about earmarks that aren’t backed up by reality.
McCain Bends His Pledge To Eliminate All Earmarks Again: I Will Judge Spending Cuts ‘On The Basis Of Need’
McCain Bends His Pledge To Eliminate All Earmarks Again: I Will Judge Spending Cuts ‘On The Basis Of Need’
On the campaign trail, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) makes a big show of claiming that he is the “worst nightmare” of Congressional spending and that if elected, he “will veto every bill with earmarks.” At the same time, McCain’s campaign has said it will “cut some $160 billion in discretionary spending” out of the budget, including $95 billion that “began life as an earmark.”
But in an interview with NPR’s Robert Siegel yesterday, McCain bent his earmark elimination pledge, indicating that he would consider making an exception for projects like the Gee’s Bend ferry that he recently visited in Alabama:
SIEGEL: Why should voters, particularly in those places, believe that you’d do any better by them than other politicians, especially when you might even take away the earmarks that might bring them a new construction project or something like that?
SEN. MCCAIN: I can assure them that the earmarks that they have received, which have been few and far between because they are not represented by powerful lobbyists and special interests in Washington, that we will judge any expenditure of the American people’s tax dollars on the basis of need. Someone pointed out several earmarks that have been fortunately gifted to some of the neediest people in comparison to the earmarks that have gone, first of all. For an example, at Gee’s Bend they put in a ferry a couple years ago, and that was an earmark.
Listen here:
Just as with his false claim that he is “the only one the special interests don’t give any money to,” McCain has a credibility gap whenever he makes a sweeping statement that he will eliminate all earmarks.
As Think Progress has noted, in order to fulfill his pledge, McCain would need to cut U.S. aid for Israel and military housing. Faced with this reality earlier this week, McCain told ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos that he would make an exception for such programs.
Thus far, McCain refuses to “name programs he’ll cut” and when challenged on particular programs, he seems to always make an exception. Is that what he calls “straight talk?”
Transcript: Read the rest of this entry »
Despite Promise To Abolish Earmarks, McCain Uses Earmark-Funded Ferry As Campaign Trail Backdrop
Despite Promise To Abolish Earmarks, McCain Uses Earmark-Funded Ferry As Campaign Trail Backdrop
This week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is embarking on what he calls the “It’s Time for Action Tour,” which he says will spotlight “forgotten Americans.” “We will travel to areas of this country that in many ways have been forgotten and left behind,” McCain senior adviser Steve Schmidt told USA Today.
As part of the tour, McCain will visit “the remote town of Gee’s Bend” in Alabama in order “to ride a ferry across the Alabama River from Camden“:
“The ferry he will be riding is very important to that community. It’s both a good and terrible symbol. It’s good that it now exists, but it’s terrible it took so long to build it,” said Katie Wright, regional spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee.
But McCain’s appearance at the ferry conflicts with his contention that he will abolish earmarks from the federal budget, considering that the Gee’s Bend ferry was funded by a federal earmark in the 2005 Transportation/Treasury Appropriations Act.
The ferry that McCain will ride today was only able to be re-opened after 44 years because of the earmark:
A federal grant allowed the ferry to reopen in 2006 — 44 years after county leaders closed it to keep the black residents of Gee’s Bend from crossing the river to the county seat to push for civil rights. Without the ferry, Camden was an 80-mile round trip.
On ABC’s This Week yesterday, McCain said he would “do away” with the “pork-barrel-laden bills” from the past few years, which would presumably include the bill that funded the Gee’s Bend ferry. Watch it:
This is not the first time McCain has created cognitive dissonance by speaking in a pork-produced setting while making anti-earmark campaign promises. Earlier this month, on the same day that he called earmarks “an egregious process,” McCain made a speech at an air field in Florida that had “received almost $10M in earmarked funds” between 2001 and 2005.
UPDATE: Fox News aired a segment on McCain’s trip to Gee’s Bend today, but made no mention of the earmark. Watch McCain do a little dance:
After speaking in front of the famed Edmund Pettus Bridge, he traveled to Gee's Bend, a brutally poor community long scarred by racial tensions. The Bend, isolated for decades by the spidery twists of the Alabama River, finally became more accessible with the institution of a reliable ferry -- which the senator rode today in recognition of its significance in healing the area's strife.
Straight Talk Derailed: Testy McCain Can’t Identify Earmarks He Would Cut
Straight Talk Derailed: Testy McCain Can’t Identify Earmarks He Would Cut
Today on ABC’s This Week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) once again boasted that he would cut spending in Washington by eliminating $65 billion in earmarks. “There’s billions that can be saved. Americans know that,” said McCain. “I look at $35 billion in the last two years and $65 billion in the years before that.”
But as host George Stephanopoulos noted (and ThinkProgress has reported in the past), that number, according to the Congressional Research Service, includes aid to Israel and funding for military housing.
When pressed on this point, McCain said that he wouldn’t cut aid to Israel. But he continued to struggle when trying to explain exactly how he would therefore cut $65 billion in earmarks, and could not name specific earmarks he would cut:
STEPHANOPOULOS: But, sir, let me finish my point. Every other estimate I’ve seen say that the earmarks are $18 billion or $20 billion a year. To get to the $60 billion, that includes earmarks like the aid to Israel, $2 billion a year. $1 billion a year for military housing.You’re not going to cut those.
McCAIN: I’m going to cut at least that.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you cutting aid to Israel?
McCAIN: Of course not. I’m not cutting aid to Israel. I’m cutting billions and billions out of defense spending which are not earmarks.
McCain also boasted of his plans to trim $160 billion in discretionary spending. He railed against wasteful defense contracts, but Stephanopoulos pointed out that to get to that number, he would have to cut 30 percent from every single program, including education and veterans benefits. McCain once again avoided answering the question, simply repeating: “I’m talking about changing the way we do business in Washington.”
Watch it:
Interestingly, McCain continues to cite $65 billion in earmarks he would eliminate as president. But his advisers have already started to recognize problems with that figure. Last week, McCain’s top economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin said that the campaign was changing the definition of earmarks. Under the new calculation, “there are between $16 billion and $18 billion” of earmarks in the current budget. Guess McCain didn’t get the memo.
Despite this muddled interview and lack of specifics on how he plans to cut spending, McCain still claimed that everyone in Washington feared him: “It’s the worst nightmare. I’m their worst nightmare, my friend.”
Transcript: Read the rest of this entry »
Rep. Berman criticizes McCain’s possible elimination of aid to Israel.
Rep. Berman criticizes McCain’s possible elimination of aid to Israel.
Today, House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Howard Berman (D-CA) released a statement responding to ThinkProgress’s report that McCain’s promise to “veto every bill with earmarks” may eliminate U.S. aid to Israel. Berman sharply criticized McCain for putting attempts to “please certain parts of the electorate” above “indispensable security programs”:
For many years, Congress has earmarked critical military aid for Israel, our closest ally in the volatile Middle East. Confronted with this fact, Senator McCain last evening hastily issued what purported to be a clarifying statement indicating that he will ‘ensure America remains committed to the security of Israel, including maintaining America’s assistance levels.’ Unfortunately, this did little to explain his intentions.
It is absolutely essential that Congress continue to require full funding for Israel. In the absence of an earmark, it is easy to imagine a situation in which funds that are vital to Israel’s self-defense are diverted to the crisis of the moment or distributed to others based on political whims. Vague commitments to ‘maintaining … assistance levels’ offer cold comfort.
Senator McCain may be trying to please certain parts of the electorate by promising to cut pork-barrel spending, but he needs to learn to distinguish pork from indispensable security programs.
McCain campaign responds to ThinkProgress on earmarks for Israel.
McCain campaign responds to ThinkProgress on earmarks for Israel.
Earlier today, ThinkProgress reported that in his promise to “veto every bill with earmarks,” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) may also eliminate aid to Israel. According to the Congressional Research Service, U.S. aid to Israel is considered an earmark. Politico’s Ben Smith received an e-mailed response from McCain’s spokesman Brian Rogers:
Senator McCain will bring wasteful spending under control, and he will ensure America remains committed to the security of Israel, including maintaining America’s assistance levels.
Smith notes, “That’s one thing about spending cuts: Much harder when you get to the details.”