Word: mccain
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This wasn't a problem when McCain was just an Arizona Senator, burnishing his maverick credentials by blasting the explosion of earmarks under the GOP Congress and highlighting the role of earmarks in GOP scandals. But when he became the Republican nominee, his across-the-board opposition suddenly became inconvenient. Aid to Israel and military housing is funded through earmarks, so McCain had to make it clear he'd protect those programs from cuts. He made a similar exception during his anti-poverty tour in April, when he visited an African-American community in Alabama that got ferry service through...
That's not just political double-talk. With two or three debatable exceptions, McCain has abstained from pork for Arizona, and he's been a principled gadfly objecting to the pork-making process. For example, McCain has consistently voted against Army Corps of Engineers water projects, Capitol Hill's most popular form of pork; he and Democrat Russell Feingold have fought a quixotic battle to reform the dysfunctional Corps and the haphazard process by which its projects are funded. McCain has even argued that water pork contributed to the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina, another argument I have made. But that...
Obama hasn't said much about McCain's pork-bashing; on a national level, it would just play to McCain's maverick strengths. But on a local level, when McCain has spoken at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Lehigh Valley Hospital and the city of Youngstown, Ohio, the Obama campaign has released lists of earmarks those places have benefited from. And in a speech to aerospace workers, Obama himself recently accused McCain of hurting the American economy by battling Boeing, even though McCain's investigations into a sweetheart deal for Boeing helped expose a Pentagon scandal...
With the modern tools of niche marketing, Obama might be able to punish McCain for his pork-busting, not only by highlighting his general opposition to farm subsidies in farm country, but also by highlighting his specific opposition to Youngstown State's engineering program, Youngstown Air Reserve Station's logistics facility, the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown's HIV/AIDs Ministry and Youngstown's sewage overflow project. When it comes to sewage overflows, most Youngstown residents probably agree with what Palin told Gibson: "It's not inappropriate for a mayor or a governor to request and work with their Congressmen, their Congresswomen...
...McCain's credit that he so steadfastly disagrees, and it is unfortunate that voters might end up punishing him. But it's hard to feel too sorry for McCain. His distaste for earmarks is a byproduct of his distaste for deficits, following his belief that the government ought to live within its means. But McCain's current economic plan would explode the deficit, mainly by making permanent the Bush tax cuts he once opposed. The Brookings Institution has estimated that that would add $5 trillion to the national debt by 2018; meanwhile, the plan would eliminate only $18 billion...