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News & ArtsFriday, March 6, 2009
Housekeeping / Mailbag Dept. of Shudder
Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 9:22 AM
We're still getting email from John McCain—not often, maybe once every few weeks—but that only makes it worse when you see the salutation:
My Friend,While campaigning for change, Barack Obama said, "We need earmark reform, and when I'm President, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely." But now the President is about to sign a huge 2,697 page spending bill with over 9,000 unnecessary and wasteful earmarks. That's not the "change" we are looking for. [BLAH BLAH BLAH ETC. ETC.]
The words "My Friend" recall John McCain's voice so clearly, they still make me feel a little sick. John McCain, I am not your friend. Furthermore, I want the phrase "my friend" back. And The Stranger is not going to send you money for your reelection campaign. I'm going to take us off your mailing list (if Dan Savage will let me).
1
Can John McCain count on the laziness of the American Press not to research whether he himself has ever voted for a bill with an earmark on it, and not to call him on his lame hypocrisy or report on it? YES HE CAN!
4
Earmarks are the stock and trade of politics, kiddies. It's the way of the world. All systems are corrupt. At least this time the folks doling it out care a bit more about folks who aren't millionaires, don't have health care or a livable wage, don't have equal rights, etc.
And where was John McCain while the Republicans were exploding the size of government for the last eight years? (He was on the verge of becoming a Democrat in 2000 and would have if Jeffords hadn't defected.)
And where was John McCain while the Republicans were exploding the size of government for the last eight years? (He was on the verge of becoming a Democrat in 2000 and would have if Jeffords hadn't defected.)
5
Yeah... you know what? He's right. There's way too much pork in the spending bills Obama has been signing. I voted for him, I'm thrilled he won, and I think he's generally doing a better job than McCain would. But McCain (or whichever one of his lackeys wrote this email) is right. Obama is compromising the credibility of his efforts by putting too much pork in these bills.
Also? You might want to consider the possibility that John McCain is your friend, and that the role he's playing here is the role that the opposition party is supposed to play in a healthy democracy.
Is McCain's record perfect on this matter? No. But he's not the president of the United States, either. If all it took to impeach a politician was hypocrisy, no politician would ever speak in public again, and Obama damn sure wouldn't be president.
Also? You might want to consider the possibility that John McCain is your friend, and that the role he's playing here is the role that the opposition party is supposed to play in a healthy democracy.
Is McCain's record perfect on this matter? No. But he's not the president of the United States, either. If all it took to impeach a politician was hypocrisy, no politician would ever speak in public again, and Obama damn sure wouldn't be president.
6
Of course McCain leaves out the second part of Obama's comment, which was consistently something along the lines of "...but earmarks total a very small amount of spending, just aren't very important, and if whining about earmarks is all you've got while the rest of us are discussing actual policy, you're going to lose this election badly, old man."
7
So about 1% of a nearly a trillion dollar spending package is too much?
Earmarks are less of a problem than the roadblocks put up by zero tollerance politics. Also, I do believe that McCain has not accepted any earmarks for Arizona at least since his crusade.
It is infuriating when talked about in dollars but when it comes to percentages it is sort of a drop in the bucket. Also, earmarks are projects so isn't that also jobs?
Earmarks are less of a problem than the roadblocks put up by zero tollerance politics. Also, I do believe that McCain has not accepted any earmarks for Arizona at least since his crusade.
It is infuriating when talked about in dollars but when it comes to percentages it is sort of a drop in the bucket. Also, earmarks are projects so isn't that also jobs?
8
Judah are you saying the current opposition party is behaving responsibly, or only John McCain is?
Are you saying the only pork in the bill is Democratic Party pork?
Would you be willing to count unnecessary tax cuts for the rich as a sort of "earmark"?
No, nobody's perfect, but if you're gonna call out Obama, Senator McCain, clean your own house first.
And yes, earmarks are a trickle in the bucket. Earmarks lubricate bills forward for passage, but aren't the major amount of actual spending in said bills.
Are you saying the only pork in the bill is Democratic Party pork?
Would you be willing to count unnecessary tax cuts for the rich as a sort of "earmark"?
No, nobody's perfect, but if you're gonna call out Obama, Senator McCain, clean your own house first.
And yes, earmarks are a trickle in the bucket. Earmarks lubricate bills forward for passage, but aren't the major amount of actual spending in said bills.
9
"Unnecessary and wasteful" is in the eye of the beholder, My Friend. Did John McCain think that money for abstinence-only education is a "wasteful and unnecessary" earmark? Especially when research shows it doesn't work. How about all that cash poured into D.A.R.E. drug education, which has proven equally ineffective? How about tax subsidies for Exxon, who reports record profit after record profit? Did our Friend Senator McCain oppose any of these when they were stacked onto bills in the last eight years?
10
Yeah, that's kind of the bullshitty part. The opposition party, kind of by definition, isn't running the show. Their value to the system is in critique, not moral purity. They don't have to be honest in order to be right.
No, nobody's perfect, but if you're gonna call out Obama, Senator McCain, clean your own house first.
Yeah, that's kind of the bullshitty part. The opposition party, kind of by definition, isn't running the show. Their value to the system is in critique, not moral purity. They don't have to be honest in order to be right.
11
The thing with earmarks is that many of them are necessary. The real problem with earmarks is that they're not necessarily going to the best possible place. Many earmarks in the spending bill go to necessary scientific research. What we should really be asking is if the research grants are going to the right people and the right organizations, not just some college in a powerful politician's district or state.
McCain has cited numerous earmarks that are actually important, but that doesn't matter to him. He jumps on them because the projects sound stupid. He's the political Andy Rooney.
McCain has cited numerous earmarks that are actually important, but that doesn't matter to him. He jumps on them because the projects sound stupid. He's the political Andy Rooney.
14
McCain is an addled old man. Republican's are as much to fault for their own earmarks that equal the Dems in money even though there are fewer of them. And instead of helping clean up the mess the Republican's made of everything, they try to stand in the way. Classy too!
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