The audacity of earmarks
New campaign slogan for Barack Obama: Same old business as usual.
The Examiner rightly lambastes Harry Reid’s historical revisionism about earmarks.
The earmark moratorium failed last night by a vote of 29-71:
The earmark measure — an amendment to the Senate’s 2009 budget act — failed on a vote of 29-71.
Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama voted in favor of the amendment.
“We’re disappointed that only 29 members of the U.S. Senate understand that the American people want us to stop this practice, which has led to corruption,” McCain said.
Ed’s got the roll call vote and more.
Same old, same old.
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Trackbacks
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Categories: Barack Obama
Power Line
» More From the East Anglia Archives
Pundit & Pundette
» Various and sundry
Stop The ACLU
» Obama To Hold Another Prime Timer To Explain Our Afghanistan Strategy To Islamic Extremists

AmSpecBlog
» Lieberman Says He's "Stubborn" on Gov't Plan
Weekly Standard
» Dowd on Palin
TigerHawk
» Negative equity













Like crack to crack whores. They need to be purged from Washington.
Solidarity right there..
or is it for show?
DaveC: It’s for show. Hypocrisy has no ends to the means.
That’s the first vote I’ve heard of that actually supports a conservative view. I’m shocked that the 3 liberal candidates actually voted for it. Naturally, it failed, no surprise there, but I would’ve thought there would be more conservatives supporting it. How depressing.
Earmarks are the politician’s umbilical cord to their constituents, providing the life-giving (political) nutrients (earmark=influence+guaranteed re-election) to depend on.
This isn’t a party issue but one of a genetic predisposition among ALL politicos.
Both of my senators voted for it. I am proud. Tennessee is still the best place in the world to live.
Examiner
If only the Democrats could come to this same conclusion about earmark and targeted tax breaks, but they can’t; true fiscal responsibility and a limited scope of government are foreign, unintelligible concepts to the Democrat mindset.
This debate about earmarks is all show. While it is something that irritates alot of people, it won’t help the budget.
Entitlements are where the battle is, not earmarks.
Now, how about a vote on a “fair tax”?
15-85 against I bet. McCain will fix the pork problem like Ron Paul will fix the tax code.
When HELL freezes over. Let me fix my own mistake. Not even if HELL freezes over.I guess you can call this ‘coming together and working together as repubs and dems’. the reaching across the isle to the other party. yep, take note and vote these incumbents out.
normally we have a stalemate. this is just unbelievable. i wonder if obama and hillary would be voting with the majority if their presidential bid was not on the line? the vote would have been 73 to 27? or mabye even 74 to 26 cause i still don’t trust mcpain.
it is time to give our power to a third party at the senate and congressional level (american constitutional party for conservatives is the third largest party in the US) so as to weed these buggers out. cause the dems and repubs are corrupt nothing is going to change. they keep getting voted in as incumbents and they are not going to vote for term limits EVER. the limit was provided by NOT voting the incumbent back in, but alas, the sheeple are not paying attention. they keep expecting to get a different result from the same failed action.
Ugh.. Kay Bailey Hutchison (”The Hutch” as we affectionately call her here in Tex) voted against this.. and she wants to show her face back here and be Governor?
No way in hell.. Keep that kind of thinking in DC.. We don’t need your kind in the Republic of Texas!
It looks like Idaho needs a couple of new Senators. At least we will get rid of “wide stance” Craig this year. For what good it will do I will fire off a letter to ask these lying crapweasels to quit trying to bribe us with our stolen tax dollars. We really need to clean out both houses and replace this den of vipers, porkers, and prostitutes along with a law or Constitutional amendment for term limits.
#11 – Zippy_Slug. Unfortunately, I’m not surprised. Hutch is just as liberal as McCain anymore. I heard her awhile back on an AM talk show explaining why she voted for the DREAM act. Same old liberal nonsense. She’s definitely one I think we should vote out. And DEFINITELY not become governor.
Of course it was voted out – earmarks and corresponding payoffs are the primary source of income for politicians.
Kay Bailey continues to show she has lost her way. I contacted her office and was sent a full page letter explaining her vote and how losing earmarks would have a “devastating” impact on Houston. Please. The thing reads like she pulled the money out of her own pocket.
I guess I should be glad she actually responded though, that is a huge departure from her normal routine. Kay, please stay out of Texas.
It doesn’t surprise me. “Me first, party second, country third”. It’s the way things are done in D.C.. What used to be hidden “under the desk” is now open and flaunted by Congressmen. Why not? Few Americans care because they are “entitled”. Besides, with the news feeding frenzy on Presidental candidates, few will know anyway. It just not news and Congress knows it. What better time to vote it down…
Pork – the only white meat.
29 Senators is a start. Maybe they can begin something.
Every Senator that voted against stopping the pork should be targeted for removal from office next time they are up for re-election … PERIOD …
One good slap across the side of a congressman’s head would leave quite an earmark…one I could support.
One of Obama’s earmarks was one million dollars for the Unversity of Chicago Hospital where Michelle Obama happens to have a $250,000.00 cushy job. Rest assured that Michelle, who talks about bad things are in the US, is not sewing stitches into drunken patients at the hospital emergency room at 2:00am. But the bigger problem is the conflict of interest or the appearance of conflict of interest. Hospital officials quickly trotted out the old slogans about how Michelle Obama had nothing to do with the earmark, how she nothing about it, and how it could not affect her job position at the hospital. Can anyone even imagine how the investigative reporters at the New York Times would react if McCain had put in an earmark for the business that Cindy McCain’s family manages? The Times would scream about it for weeks. With Obama, it gets barely a mention. This earmark shows that Obama has a deaf ear when it comes to conflicts of interests or appearances of a conflict.
Kay Baily Hutchison is a real and continuing dissappointment to those of us in Texas – she continually weasels on things that are really im[portant – always a ‘reason’ – always BS.
without even looking (but i did) I know how Boxer and Feinstien voted.
The dreaded Califonia two headed monster. (gag)
aj.. you took the words from my keyboard! i was thinking the same thing!
Hutchison isn’t planning to run for her Senate seat again, so that re-election isn’t in the cards. However, I’ve heard she’s thinking of running for governor, and I’ve also heard her mentioned as a possible running mate for McCain…
uhangtight~
The Constitution Party sounds just fine, until you get to the isolationist plank in their platform. That just isn’t realistic in the truly global world we live in. Unlike the days of the Founding Fathers, the oceans can no longer protect us. Especially with such easy access to our nation over unprotected borders with Canada (with lax immigration policies) and Mexico (complicit in the illegal alien problem, and how much easier would it be for a terrorist of Middle Eastern original to blend in by learning to speak Spanish??).
I don’t see 15 Senators voting for the Fair Tax. It gives too much power away to the
peopleunclean multitudes.All of the Senators are too well entrenched with the current 67,000+ pages of IRS tax code to give it up.
Of course Soap, I’d like nothing better than to see the Fair Tax become law, and for no other reason than the Politicians wouldn’t be able to change it without changing the Consttution too.
It’s still free to dream, ain’t it?
JohnnyD,
Yep and I dream of a day where they do not tell me they are going to do something when I know they are just blowing smoke up our butts.
Fix the Tax code – smoke
Pork reform – smoke
Ethical Congress – black smoke
Hope/change – thick black smoke
Balanced budget – red smoke
Entitlement reform – dense smoke
…
Sorry Soap, couldn’t resist making that “change” for ya.
It must be because I’m bloated from all that smoke.
And make no mistake, they are all whores. Our two clowns from Pennsylvania, Casey the Useless and Arlen the Specter, need replaced too.
No surprise here. After you pay your taxes it is OPM. Other Peoples Money.
They consider it a Duty to spend yours, not theirs!
The only way,vote out incumbents.
Both of my Senators voted to keep earmarks. These are Republicans who want the rest of us to fall in line with McCain. Since getting rid of earmarks is part of McCain’s platform, why aren’t they falling in line with McCain?
I searched for a definition of “earmarks” and found the following:
I can’t see how earmarks can even be constitutional. They are institutionalized theft. If John McCain can’t get the majority of his own party to support him in stopping earmarks – an issue where he is clearly in the right, how is he going to get the Senate to support him in anything he tries to do if he becomes president?
That bill was only a gesture- They ALL knew it would fail so it was safe to bring it up.
If only there was a way to let the American people vote (electronically?) for how OUR money is spent (tax payers only, thank you).
Of course you would still need a president and congress willing to pass it………….never mind.