CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
– POLITICS
Sept. 3, 2008 – 8:52 p.m.
Republicans Defend Palin’s Earmark History, Say She’s Changed
By Kathleen Hunter, CQ Staff
Leaders of the congressional Republican campaign against parochial pet projects in spending bills joined the party’s aggressive campaign to promote the vice-presidential candidacy of Sarah Palin on Wednesday, labelling the Alaska governor a “reformed earmarker,” who could be trusted to help trim wasteful spending from federal budgets.
“When it comes to earmarks, McCain-Palin is a reformer’s dream and a pork-barreler’s nightmare,” Rep. Jeb Hansarling of Texas said at a hastily-arranged news conference.
“There’s one person in this race who’s actually vetoed earmarks, and her name is Gov. Sarah Palin ,” said Hensarling, who chairs the Republican Study Commission, a group of fiscally conservative House members.
As an Arizona senator for two decades, McCain has lambasted colleagues in both parties with equal fervor for their pursuit of line-items in appropriations bills that commit slivers of the federal budget to public works back home, some of them with little evident merit. As president, he has said, he would have no hesitation to veto spending bills with such earmarks. “ John McCain was fighting wasteful government spending before fighting wasteful government spending was cool,” said Rep. John Shadegg of Arizona.
The news conference was arranged to tamp down any worries in fiscally conservative circles about Palin, who’s commitment to budget discipline has come under scrutiny in the week since she was tapped by McCain for the No. 2 spot on the ticket.
When her nomination was announced Aug. 29, Palin declared that she had “told Congress ‘thanks, but no thanks’ on that Bridge to Nowhere” — a reference to the nearly $400 million appropriation for a bridge project to connect an island of 50 people to the mainland in Alaska, which became the focus of national ridicule and prompted a renewed congressional soul-searching about the propriety of earmarks. But, in fact, Palin supported the project as a candidate for governor and only turned against it after she took office, by which point it was no longer politically viable.
In addition, Palin sought millions of dollars worth of federal earmarks when she was mayor of Wasilla, and had that city of 7,000 hire a lobbyist to go after the federal funds, and as recently as this February requested almost $200 million worth of new funding for Alaska projects, according to The Washington Post.
Republican lawmakers asserted that Palin, like so many other Republicans in public office, had seen the flaws in the earmark process and come around to supporting a moratorium — a policy change that several dubbed courageous.
“All of us here, I think, would consider ourselves recovering earmarkers,” said Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the chief deputy GOP whip in the House.
The Republican lawmakers pointed out that the 2008 GOP platform, which delegates adopted Monday, called for “an immediate moratorium on the earmarking system” until the appropriations process could be reformed “through full transparency.”
“In picking Gov. Palin, Sen. McCain has said he is going to take on the Washington establishment,” said Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina. ”He is going to fight the status quo whether it be in the Republican Party or in the Democratic Party.”
But Democrats slammed Palin as a slick politician and questioned McCain’s judgement in picking someone who had so short a public resume.
“You can praise her as someone who played the inside Washington game well, but you cannot present her as someone who is a reformer on earmarks,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the chairman of the party’s House campaign operation, who’s in St. Paul this week to offer the party’s spin on the convention. “The facts just tell a different story . . . What we’re seeing here is the consequences of a rush to judgement and a rash decision by John McCain . I think it tells you an awful lot about the way he makes decisions on the fly.”
Comments
She "vetoed earmarks?" No she didn't! She kept the money and spent it on other projects near her hometown!
Ok, now she is a" reformer" who learned her lesson on earmarks. It still does not change the fact that she is being presented as this great crusader who is agianst wasteful spending and will bring to Washington those qualities when she has spent her whole political life grasping for more money from Washing ton ! Of course she can cut taxes in Alaska...they have the federal government paying for everything ! It seems everyday the Republicans are out there making excuses for her. Face it...she isn't what they thought she was.
She was for the pork, before she became Kosher. She was for the "Bridge To nowwhere ", before she was against it. Her husband was for Alaska Seperating from the USA, before he was against it. She was a victim before she was a pitbull. Gov. Palin is just another politician trying to get elected. She's just another Republican that thinks America will forget what they've done to the quality of life in our great country. The difference between a Bush Republican and a Alaska Republican.......one likes pork the other eats it !
Reformer? More like a shape-shifter!
I definitely agree that this political move speaks poorly for McCain. Let's look at the logic. He picks a candidate from a state which isn't even connected to our mainland who has 5 kids, one of them being a newborn with special needs, and a grandchild on the way who is born to her teenage daughter. Apparently the Vice President does nothing because if they did anything at all it would be tough to take care of a full family who needs a mother. Yes she looks nice. Yes she has the Ann Coulter thing down about being a vicious woman who will take cheap shots because it looks bad when a man tries to fire back. Yes she runs a state with the population and staff of a Walmart on a Sunday afternoon. I'd vote for her to be Vice President of Waffle House but not the White House.
It's easy to say you don't need to rely on federal money when you have a population less than a million people, and budget surplus of over 10 billion dollars due to oil royalties. A lot of economists say that we will get most of the federal money we currently get with or without Ted Stevens earmarks. That's because we have a large military presence, and the federal government owns nearly all of the land and resources. That requires a federal presence and federal spending to manage it. We will always have the highest federal spending in the nation. We are over twice the size of Texas, and have a higher percentage of federal land than any other state in the union. we also have one of the tiniest population. Because of that, the federal spending/capita measure is always going to be bogus in Alaska. It is telling that Sarah spent the portion of the bridge to nowhere money on roads on Gravina Island, because she couldn't keep that money if she spent it on anything else. But despite all of the earmark hype, the real story is how agressively she has taxed the oil industry to filll state coffers. In Alaska, recently, that is where the real money is coming from, not earmarks. It would be interesting to see how much more all of you in the lower 48 are paying from our increased taxes, and compare that to how much you could save from drilling ANWR. You guys keep on chanting "drill baby drill", and we'll keep on drilling you for all of the money you are worth.
Governor Palin's record is full of holes. I just hope Senator Obama's campaign can designate a female Governor, senator, etc.. to come out and speak on the holes and mistruths about her record. They must be stated in a side-by-side comparison and via commericial if necessary so the American people are fully aware.
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