McCain Blames Earmarks For The Current Financial ‘Difficulties’»

[RedEarth]

During an interview with CBS’s Katie Couric yesterday, McCain said that the current financial crisis “is of the utmost seriousness and a crisis of enormous proportions.” But sticking to his mantra, McCain strangely cited earmarks as “one of the major reasons why we’re having difficulties”:

McCAIN: e’ve got to take tough decisions and one of them is government spending by the way. One of the major reasons why we’re having difficulties is we let spending get completely out of control — earmark and pork-barrel projects. Senator Obama asked for over $900 million in earmarks pork-barrel projects, that’s not part of the answer thats part of the problem.

video here....

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/25/mccain-crisis-earmarks/

[AZBlue]

1. I thought earmarks were less than 1% of federal spending.

How can that be the problem with Wall Street? How can any earmarks be the problem with Wall Street?

[grantcart]

3. Technically speaking earmarks are 0% of spending

They don't add a cent to an expenditure bill but simply 'ear mark' how some of that money should be spent.

In any case a lot of ear marks are great - little projects that the local Congressman knows and has lots of community support.

[AZBlue]

7. Ah, yes, you're right.

And you've brought up my second "but..." in the earmark conversation: but aren't our members of Congress supposed to be looking out for our needs at the local level? Obviously there's a line that shouldn't be crossed (read: the bridge to nowhere) but if, for example, Arizona needs money from the federal government for the border patrols that we were told the federal government would pay for (which really did happen) shouldn't it be the members of Congress from Arizona that pursue that money? Isn't part of their responsibility to go after funds for highways and bridges and whatever else is needed, truly needed, by their home states?

[VADem11]

2. Shut up about earmarks McCain

Good god, he is obsessed with them. All hell is breaking loose and all he fucking cares about is earmarks. So sick of him.

[PA Democrat]

4. Earmarks were about $18 billion this year.

And some of that is for legitimate expenditures. When the foundation of your house is crumbling, you don't worry about the squeaking screen door.

[firedupdem]

He's actually as dumb as sarah but they listen to him because

he's a POW....you guys did know that didn't you? Yeah..he's a POW

[TwilightGardener]

5. He just has no fundamental understanding of the economy at all, does he?

Did he ever even take a basic economics course in his vast four years of failure at Annapolis?

[Jennicut]

6. This is insane! Earmarks have nothing to do with lack of regulation and bad loans

The man is losing it more and more each day.

[iceman66]

10. McCain doesn't really understand what's going on with the economy.

And he's counting on a majority of voters not understanding it either.

[Life Long Dem]

8. Change starts with booting out McSame.

[AtomicKitten]

9. It's an Enron response to deregulation.

The GOP response is more free market without regulation.

[anigbrowl]

11. IT's a smart comment politically, because...

a lot of Republicans get confused by big numbers. Million, Billion, Trillion...it's just a lot of zeros. Seriously; McCain can keep repeating 18 Billion or whatever pissant amount it is, and 10% of the electorate will convince themselves that that's more than the cost of the bank bailout.

When McCain says mind-numbingly stupid things, it's meant for the mind-numbingly stupid people who just go around repeating talking points.