U.S. Senator Russ Feingold in Support of the McCain Amendment Stripping Earmarks from the Omnibus

[RiverStone]

Monday, March 9, 2009



Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Russ Feingold released the following statement in support of Senator John McCain’s proposed amendment to the omnibus spending bill, which is before the U.S. Senate, to remove $7.7 billion for more than 8500 earmarks.

“As Americans struggle with the economic crisis, Congress needs to show them it is spending their money wisely. That’s why I am cosponsoring Senator McCain’s amendment to remove the $7.7 billion for pet projects included in the omnibus. Congress successfully kept earmarks out of the stimulus bill and it should show the same restraint with the omnibus by passing the McCain amendment. We cannot expect the American people to have faith in our handling of their dollars if Congress refuses to change the way it does business. If the Congress fails to remove this pork-barrel spending, President Obama should veto the bill and send it back to Congress to be cleaned up.”

Feingold recently introduced legislation along with McCain and Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) to give the president a limited line-item veto to help remove wasteful spending from appropriations bills. Feingold also is the author of S. 162, the Fiscal Discipline, Earmark Reform, and Accountability Act, an earmark reform bill cosponsored by Senators McCain, McCaskill, Graham, Coburn, Lieberman and Burr to cut down on wasteful government spending.

http://feingold.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=309280

Very few politicians actually walk their talk, Russ Feingold is one of them. To allow this pork-barrel bullshit to remain unchanged would signify that even with the Dems in charge, it is political business as usual on The Hill.

Real change = CHANGE! :think:

[Cha]

1. If mccain is doing something then

it's about grandstanding..I don't trust that sob as far as I could lob him.

[RiverStone]

6. I will not blindly follow my party's leadership when they fuck up

That's what the freepers do.

In this particular case, I agree with Sen. Feingold and McCain (grandstanding or not) that passing a bill filled with 8,500 earmarks is total bullshit. Our wonderful new President campaigned on NOT doing this and I can't fathom how folks in the DC beltway don't see how this looks when everyday Americans are simply trying to survive.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Can you name one of the items you think should be scrapped?

Please.

Tell us why you support John McCain.

[RiverStone]

9. There is a huge shitload of em! Just a few samples --- which do you see as unnecessary?

Examples of Earmarks in the Omnibus


$713,625 Woody Biomass at SUNY-ESF. Walsh and Schumer sponsors

$951,500 Sustainable Las Vegas. Berkeley and Reid sponsors.

$24,000 A+ for Abstinence. Specter is sponsor.

$300,000 Montana World Trade Center. Rehberg sponsor.

$950,000 Myrtle Beach International Trade and Convention Center. Graham sponsor.

$200,000 Oil Region Alliance. Peterson sponsor.

$190,000 Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY for digitizing and editing the Cody collection. Barbara Cubin is the sponsor

$143,000 Las Vegas Natural History Museum, Las Vegas, NV, to expand natural history education programs. Sponsored by Harry Reid

$238,000 for the Polynesian Voyaging Society, Honolulu, HI, for educational programs. Sen. Daniel Inouye is the sponsor.

$381,000 for Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York, NY for music education programs. Jerrold Nadler is the sponsor.

http://www.taxpayer.net/resources.php?category=&type=Project&proj_id=1961&action=Headlines%20By%20TCS

more.....



Here are some of the earmarks Bay Area lawmakers sought as part of the $410 billion omnibus spending bill.

$1.75 million for Presidio Heritage Center (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi)

$476,000 for facilities and equipment at Chinese Hospital in San Francisco (Pelosi)

$190,000 for Peralta Community College District in Oakland (Rep. Barbara Lee)

$333,000 for San Francisco State University for training of health professionals (Rep. Jackie Speier, first requested by late Rep. Tom Lantos)

$237,000 for construction of Japanese American Museum of San Jose (Rep. Zoe Lofgren)

$238,000 for the Glide Foundation for facilities and equipment (Pelosi)

$637,000 for Santa Clara Valley Medical Center for emergency room and mammography equipment (Rep. Mike Honda and Rep. Anna Eshoo)

$218,000 for olive fruit fly detection and exclusion program (Rep. Mike Thompson and Sen. Dianne Feinstein)

$153,000 for Bolinas Lagoon restoration (Rep. Lynn Woolsey and Sen. Barbara Boxer)

$10 million for Muni Third Street light rail (Pelosi, Feinstein, Boxer)

$2.6 million for south access to Doyle Drive (Pelosi, Boxer)

$1.9 millon improvements to Transbay Terminal (Pelosi, Boxer)

$950,000 for Golden Gate Bridge moveable median barrier (Pelosi, Woolsey, Thompson)

$950,000 for I-205-Lammers Road improvements in Tracy (Rep. Jerry McNerney)

$950,000 for I-280-I-880 Stevens Creek interchange (Honda)

$6.9 million for Corps of Engineers work in Oakland Harbor (Lee)

$10 million for Corp of Engineers work on the Napa River (Thompson, Feinstein, Boxer, President Obama)

$14 million Hamilton Airfield wetlands restoration (Pelosi, Woolsey, Feinstein, Boxer)

$8 million Bay Area regional water recycling program (Rep. George Miller, Rep. Ellen Tauscher, Eshoo, Feinstein)

$3.5 million for San Francisco Bay long-term management strategy (Pelosi, Feinstein)

$951,000 for San Francisco biofuels program (Pelosi)

$237,000 for green energy job training (Lee, Rep. Pete Stark)

$12 million for large crash rescue station at Travis Air Force base (Tauscher, Feinstein, Boxer)

For a complete list of earmarks, go to www.taxpayer.net

Source: Taxpayers for Common Sense

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/03/MN8P168PHR.DTL

[midnight]

16. There certainly are a lot of earmarks for the folks in

California? Does any one else seem to think they have a lot of earmarks?

Without an explanation for some of the spending proposals it is hard to say if they are necessary, but this one leaps out at me as an old economy choice-$200,000 Oil Region Alliance. Peterson sponsor

Why can't we get big corporations to re-invest in the communities where they are doing business and pay for some of these improvements. In Minnesota IBM was instrumental in contributing, to both education and the art communities, to keep the community where they did business viable. But it seems many corporations want all the benefits, and non of the responsibility.

So all this falls into the laps of the tax payer. Find a corporat sponser and put the name on the corporation that helps fund the project.

[Cha]

8. mccain's a fucker. Sorry to see

Russ following him on this.

[RiverStone]

11. See post #9 and tell me you agree with all these fucking earmarks

McCain may be a "fucker" on many issues, but just because he walks around with his head up his --- does not mean he can't pull it out on rare occasions.

Again, do you agree all these earmarks (AKA corporate paybacks) make sense?

[Myrina]

2. Wrong Answer, Russ, sorry.

I've been a Feingold Fan for about 15 years but strongly disagree with him on this one.

Bad move, Senator.

[RiverStone]

5. Why do you disagree?

Do you realize how much earmarks reward corporations buying your vote?

[RB TexLa]

3. Since when did all earmark spending equal bad or wasteful spending?

[RiverStone]

4. dupe

oops

[HooptieWagon]

10. One person's earmark is another's necessity..

We might laugh at "Pig odor research", but I suspect it's no laughing matter to people living within 20 or 30 miles of a large corporate pig farm.

I think a reasonable compromise is to have each and every earmark introduced and defended on the Senate floor by the sponsoring Senator. And lets see the campaign contributions from the benefitiaries of the earmark.

[camera obscura]

12. I respect Feingold, so I wish I knew how he thinks we would fund projects w/o earmarks

I understand how some of it is pointless (like the tons of Robert Byrd centers around WV) but it seems the majority of these projects make sense.

[LiberalPersona]

13. Does that 7.7 billion include

the 40% of the earmarks the repubs are getting?

[RiverStone]

14. Of course --- both parties are guilty of playing the same ol game

Just this time, we are in a position to finally stop playing. Sadly, power is seductive and those that obtain it are willing to just about sell anything to keep it.

[theophilus]

15. Changes in "earmarks" should be made, but McCain is an ass.

The stimulus, especially the jobs part, was too small. This is a bit more of job creation that I think needs to pass. In the future, there should be NO earmarks in this form but Senators and Reps need to bring home a little bacon to their constituencies. I hope a better way can be arranged so that the people can thank the government as a whole and not just a Rep or Senator. Anyway, Feingold is on the wrong side here, imo.