Ok conservatives, do you believe in small government and fiscal discipline or is that just talk? If that is still one of the core pillars of the conservative movement than I would expect to see Rush, Hannity and the rest of the anti-McCain wing of the GOP praising him up and down in the coming days. On the issue of spending, special interests and earmarks, there is nobody in the Senate with a better record than John McCain.
Washington Post
Candidates’ Earmarks Worth Millions
Of Front-Runners, McCain Abstained
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure more than $340 million worth of home-state projects in last year’s spending bills, placing her among the top 10 Senate recipients of what are commonly known as earmarks, according to a new study by a nonpartisan budget watchdog group.
Working with her New York colleagues in nearly every case, Clinton supported almost four times as much spending on earmarked projects as her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), whose $91 million total placed him in the bottom quarter of senators who seek earmarks, the study showed.
Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the likely GOP presidential nominee, was one of five senators to reject earmarks entirely, part of his long-standing view that such measures prompt needless spending.
Despite her $340 million in earmarks last year, Hillary had the nerve to say this on the campaign trail today,
“For seven long years, we’ve had a government of, by, and for the special interests, and we’ve had enough,” the New York senator told an audience at a General Motors plant that she toured here. “It’s time to level the playing field against the special interests and deliver 21st century solutions to rebuild the middle class.”
Back to McCain, he held a blogger conference call today and was asked about earmarks, here’s what he had to say, according to the indespensible Porkbusters,
“I think that if we had a moratorium on earmarks it would be one of the most energizing things for our base they could hear. I think they’d be overjoyed… [The Bridge To Nowhere] is more famous than the Brooklyn Bridge.”
Senator McCain took pains to be clear that he was not demanding action from Congress, saying “I’m not telling them what to do, I’m telling them what I would do… I’m trying to lead them in telling them that the earmark spending … has reduced [the base’s] enthusiasm.”
There has been endless talk about the base being motivated this fall. In my opinion, the reason the GOP lost control of congress in 2006 was because the base was ticked off by the corruption, wild spending and unwillingness to address earmarks. I don’t think it was Iraq at all. The base was disgusted, let alone “motivated”.
On this core conservative issue, McCain’s record is something that the base should be excited about, if they are sincere in their belief that the GOP is the party of fiscal discipline and small government. Unfortunately, that is an open question. We’ll see in the coming days.
UPDATE: Listening to Hannity & Colmes tonight and Hannity is doing a segment on the final flip flop of the Romney campaign, his endorsement of John McCain. Hannity’s big question, “will this give McCain the conservative credentials he needs”. I feel like I’m living in some kind of alternate universe. BTW, Coulter was on earlier, still railing about Hillary being more conservative than McCain, even on the war. Depressing.
UPDATE II: More evidence that the answer is no, the GOP does not care about fiscal discipline.
GOP’s Earmarks Crusade Has its Limits
Anti-earmark crusader Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) lost his bid for a seat on the House Appropriations Committee Thursday…