BCT Editorial – 4/7/08

This page was last updated on April 7, 2008.

Failing grade; Editorial; Beaver County Times; April 7, 2008.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Everybody talks about how bad congressional pork-barrel spending is, but nobody wants to do anything about it.

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced last week that a proposal for a one-year moratorium on so-called earmarks has been dropped.

“A major reason for this was because the Senate voted 71-29 against the proposal. That had a noticeable effect on House members’ receptivity to the moratorium.”

[RWC] FYI, this bill is also referred to as the DeMint-McCain Earmark Moratorium. I wonder why the editorial didn’t mention this. <g>

“Even though some Republicans are trying to capitalize on the situation, this mess is bipartisan.

“When it comes to fiscal discipline, both parties are failures.”

[RWC] This editorial is mostly correct, but didn’t you find it interesting the editorial didn’t mention the positions held by the remaining three presidential candidates? Here’s why.

In the CAGW 2008 Congressional Pig Book (for pork in fiscal year 2008), Hillary Clinton was credited with 281 pork barrel projects for $296.2 million. Barack Obama was credited with 53 projects for $97.4 million. John McCain? Zero pork barrel projects for $0.

For 2006, Mrs. Clinton had a CAGW rating of 14% (taxpayer hostile), Mr. Obama had a rating of 30% (taxpayer unfriendly), and Mr. McCain had a rating of 95% (taxpayer hero). The ratings aren’t out yet for 2007.