The Political Whore

clairecmc Voted yes on McCain amendment. Awkward when I disagree with party leadership but I really think McCain is right on this one.
15 minutes ago from TinyTwitter

(Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri is talking about supporting John McCain’s amendment today to scrap the recently passed $410 billion omnibus spending authorization bill because of its many earmarks. GoxExec reported:

Congress would extend expiring stopgap spending legislation through fiscal 2009 that would fund several government programs at fiscal 2008 levels and scrap a $410 billion omnibus fiscal 2009 appropriations bill the Senate began considering Monday, under an amendment introduced by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. “The approach is fiscally responsible, disciplined and expeditious, which is why just two years ago we agreed to nearly the exact same approach” for fiscal 2008 appropriations, McCain said.)

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How does $335 million in stimulus package funding create jobs, Madame Speaker? The hemming and hawing and dissembling ensues.

Neither political party has a monopoly on stupid pork-barrel spending. Take this example from the Orlando Sentinel, which revealed that a former aide to Gov. Charlie Crist named Brice Harris may have violated ethics rules by steering grants to a medical clinic and then leaving his $70K government job to administer the grant for said clinic:

Gov. Charlie Crist said Tuesday that a former staffer in his office might have violated state ethics laws when he shepherded a $500,000 grant to a Panhandle sports-medicine clinic — and then went to work for the clinic to administer the grant.

“Well, there’s no question it probably doesn’t pass the smell test,” Crist said. “And that’s why I’ve asked our inspector general to do a thorough investigation and review it and see if he’s complied with the appropriate ethics rules attendant to it.”

Now, that’s bad enough. But find out what the half a mil in grants were for and then you will get fully outraged: Read the rest of this entry »