At least Obama listed his requests on his website for all to see - with no intention of hiding anything.
Earmarks are not necessarily "personal" items... but more what most politicians promise their constituents that they will try and get done. Sometimes it happens, sometimes not. Should there be less of it? Of course.
As I said before, the big bailout package had all kinds of pork stuffed into it... in order to get some more votes on side. Items such as...
-$192 million to cover a rum excise tax with money diverted to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.(section 308, page 279)
- $33 million in economic development funds for small business in American Samoa. (section 309, page 279)
-$4 million in tax credits for mine rescue team training. (section 310, page 280)
-$119-205 million in tax credits for business that employ American Indians who live on reservations and accelerated depreciation for property used on reservations (sections 314 and 315, page 288)
-$? million railroad track maintenance. (section 316, page 289)
-$331 million seven-year-cost-recovery period for land improvement at motorsport racetracks. (section 317, page 290)
-$? million in tax incentives to invest in the District of Columbia (section, 322, page 291)
-$148 million reduction of wool fabric import tariffs to the Wool Trust Fund to promote American wool competitiveness (section 325, page 295)
-$397 million deduction for domestic projects for film and television productions (section 502, page 298)
-$6 million for exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children (section 503, page 300)
-$223 million in payouts to fishermen who received payments for the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident (Section 504, pages 301-307)
None of these are "technically" earmarks - but tax credits, deductions and exemptions. But they were used as pork to sweeten the deal all the same... and bring more votes onside. Compared to $700,000,000,000 though - they get lost in the shuffle.
McCain has a long tradition of and a good reputation for porkbusting
- but even he is prone to it at times... it just gets called something else.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/ar...s-pork-project/
McCain's pork projectBy Shawn Zeller
Published on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 05:27 p.m.
SUMMARY: McCain hammers at this point of distinction: He hates pork-barrel spending; Obama revels in it.
Republican presidential nominee John McCain is trying hard to exploit his well-earned reputation in Washington as a foe of pork-barrel spending – the federal money directed by members of Congress to parochial projects in states and localities.
He's emphasizing the issue more lately as he tries to wrest away from Sen. Barack Obama the potent mantle of "candidate of change." McCain says he and running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin would bring a true change in the way Washington works, as demonstrated by their opposition to the time-honored tradition of pork-barrel spending.
A PolitiFact review of McCain's attacks on Democratic nominee Obama, as well as McCain's boasts about his own record on pork, finds that the Arizona senator is largely on solid ground. There is a clear distinction between McCain and Obama on earmarks in federal spending bills, the traditional form in which Congress authorizes pork spending, even if McCain is often a bit too generous in describing his own record.
The latest instance comes in remarks McCain made at a rally in Tampa on Sept. 16. McCain said: "I have never asked for a single earmark, pork-barrel project for my state of Arizona. Sen. Obama has asked for $932-million in earmarks, literally one million dollars for every day that he’s been in Congress." McCain had made nearly the identical claim just a week ago in mailer that is now circulating in Florida. "Obama has requested $1-million in pork barrel spending for every working day he has been in the Senate," it says, while "John McCain has never sought a single dollar."
The details on both of these claims are easy to track down.
Obama, on his Web site, has listed every earmark he's requested – but not necessarily received – since he came to the Senate in January 2005. The total, including earmarks in which he joined with other senators in making the request, is $931.3-million. Since he took office in January 2005, Obama has been a senator for about 930 working days, defined as Monday through Friday. That's right about $1-million per working day, though we do realize McCain didn't say 'working day' in his speech the way he did in the mailer.
McCain, meanwhile, has mostly eschewed earmarks, even if the Arizona senator should learn to never say "never" as he has claimed, erroneously, many times throughout the campaign.
As PolitiFact writer John Frank pointed out earlier this year, McCain has rarely sought pork, but he has on a few occasions, such as his 2006 legislation that asked for $10-million for an academic center at the University of Arizona to honor the late Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Or McCain's 2003 effort to use federal funds to buy property to create a buffer zone around Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, or his 1992 request that the Environmental Protection Agency provide $5-million toward a wastewater project in Nogales, Ariz.
While McCain advocates have argued in the past that these projects don't meet the definition of pork-barrel spending, pork critics disagree. "If it doesn't meet the technical term of earmark, it would probably meet the public idea of one," Pete Sepp, a vice president at the conservative, anti-pork National Taxpayers Union, told the New York Times in reference to the Rehnquist center request.
We could probably start a whole new forum devoted to Pentagon Pork... and never run out of material...
