Re: McCain pontificates, but what has he actually done about earmarks?
- From: Islander <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:03:58 -0800
Jerry Okamura wrote:
Bush will soon be out of office. So, he has complained about earmarks and has not done a whole lot to stop the practice, though I do not know how anyone can stop these representatives from doing what they want to do. We are now in the midst of determing who should be our next President. If we are concerned about the issue, as you seem to imply you are, then you should know what the candidates for the Presidency are going to do about stopping this practice. What has McCain, Clinton or Obama proposed that gives you any hope that when one of them becomes the President, that they have a plan to stop this practice?
Do you have some idea of how we can stop this practice, that is if you are truly concerned about what Congress does?
Earmarks are deeply ingrained in the political process and will be very difficult to stop. The line item veto was declared unconstitutional, but would not have stopped the practice since it just pushed the pork up to the wheeling and dealing at the Presidential level. Likewise, claims by McCain that he will veto any bill containing pork are foolish. I won't happen.
The only solution is to shine light on the process and the recent legislation passed by the Democratic Congress is at least a step in the right direction. At least some of the pork is now visible to voters.
But, this will be a long battle. Some time ago I posted a list of the different ways that pork is slipped into the budget and it will be very difficult to root out the influence that the elected officials have within the bureaucracy. I have seen cases of blatant intimidation in refusal to pass an agencies budget unless certain contracts were awarded to certain companies.
While a long way from what I would consider an adequate solution, Obama appears to me to have the best record of fighting both earmarks and the influence of lobbyists on government.
I especially like the effort by Obama and Coburn (a Republican) to get a bill passed to create the database of government contracts that can be easily searched by the public. If you have every tried to find this kind of data in the past, you might appreciate this. see http://usaspending.gov/ This was a significant accomplishment for a junior Senator. In fairness, McCain and Clinton were also among the 47 cosponsors of this bill and advocates for it.
Obama attempted to go much further, for example in his Transparency and Integrity in Earmarks Act of 2006 (S.2261) but only few of his positions got included in the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (S.1) which was finally passed in 2007. It is, however, a good indication of Obama's position on earmarks. Note that McCain could not resist the temptation to slip in language to benefit the Indians in Arizona.
Obama has also gone further than either of the other two candidates in refusing to accept money from lobbyists and PACs while raising more money that either of the other two candidates.
I'm not holding out much hope of ending earmarks or other forms of influence peddling in Washington any time soon, but Obama seems to me to have the best ideas and accomplishments so far.
.
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- From: Islander
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