NY TImes link, possible free registration needed. But here's the first three graphs for those who don't want to give their info to the gray lady:

WASHINGTON - President Bush often denounces the propensity of Congress to earmark money for pet projects. But in his new budget, Mr. Bush has requested money for thousands of similar projects.

He asked for money to build fish hatcheries, eradicate agricultural pests, conduct research, pave highways, dredge harbors and perform many other specific local tasks.

The details are buried deep in the president's budget, just as most Congressional earmarks are buried in obscure committee reports that accompany spending bills.

Do as I say, don't do as I do....

The "Gray Lady" died years ago, stabbed through the heart by 1000 dumbass bloggers masquerading as reporters, and outright liars making stories up.

And if you want to really impress us with your newsie / j-school jargon it would have been "graf" .

Presidential earmarks are teh bomb!

Generation_D: The "Gray Lady" died years ago, stabbed through the heart by 1000 dumbass bloggers masquerading as reporters, and outright liars making stories up.

Sorry, the NYT is still the paper of record in America. While they have made mistakes, they are miles above any other news source for reliability and accuracy.

Dinki: Sorry, the NYT is still the paper of record in America.

The Washington Post has broken every major story in at least the past two years. And they've done it without pandering to any specific ideology or political affiliation.

thamike: Dinki: Sorry, the NYT is still the paper of record in America.

The Washington Post has broken every major story in at least the past two years. And they've done it without pandering to any specific ideology or political affiliation.

Please.... The WSJ is the newspaper of record and the WaPo is the D.C. insiders weathervane.

The Wall Street Journal!?

Please. Prior to the Iraq invasion, NYT, WaPo, and WSJ were all cheerleading and actively supporting the invasion. It was outsider papers, like those in the McClatchy family, who were actually doing critical, real reporting.

IOKIYAR

Did Bush propose any Hippie museums?

There are subtle differences in good and bad earmarks.

Well he did say that Congress needs to weed earmarks out of the budget or he wouldn't sign it. Maybe he is just checking to make sure they are actually working. Sort of like leaving a candy wrapper on the floor to test if the cleaning staff is picking up at night. If these earmarks are still in the budget when it gets back to him I'm sure he'll refuse to sign it as he promised the nation.

He asked for money to build fish hatcheries, eradicate agricultural pests, conduct research, pave highways, dredge harbors and perform many other specific local tasks.

Outside of the fish hatcheries I don't see the problem. IIRC, one of the govts main jobs is to build & maintain infrastructure. I would be intersted in seeing what the other "specific local tasks" are.

VictoryCabal: Please. Prior to the Iraq invasion, NYT, WaPo, and WSJ were all cheerleading and actively supporting the invasion. It was outsider papers, like those in the McClatchy family, who were actually doing critical, real reporting.

The Post wasn't. I was glued to it the whole time. They gave equal share to supporters and detractors as well as offering clinically unbiased analysis. They still do, even when they are uncovering hideous Bush & Co. scandals like Walter Reed.

I love how they are spinning earmarks as a huge fiscal issue and everyone is falling for it. REMOVING AN EARMARK DOES NOT REDUCE SPENDING. The money still goes wherever it was farking going before just the governor or some bureaucrat gets to decide what money is spent on instead of the congressman.

Republicans have abandoned fiscal conservativism, all they have left are shell games such as this to keep up the charade.

Bush had seven years to do something about this and with a GOP Congress for most of them. He has no authority to deal with budget issues

Every research building at the university hospital here was built by earmarks. Why are republicans such arseholes?

Failing_Junk: REMOVING AN EARMARK DOES NOT REDUCE SPENDING.



It needed to be repeated. Also, earmarks account for less than 1% of the total budget. Attacking them is silly. If you want to reduce spending, why don't we attack DoD waste?

Earmarks =

NOT NEWS: Bush is a hypocrite.

Shaggy_C:


It needed to be repeated. Also, earmarks account for less than 1% of the total budget. Attacking them is silly. If you want to reduce spending, why don't we attack DoD waste?

Can you not be against waste period?

LordJiro: NOT NEWS: Bush every President in history is a hypocrite.

ftfy

Hang On Voltaire: Can you not be against waste period?

It's fine, but the Republicans are content with their little game of deflection to ignore their own policies of wasteful big-government spending. Calling out earmarks is silly considering the amount of money being pumped into untraceable pet projects elsewhere in the budget.

Oh Geez, now the secret is out, Bush is (at best) a two-faced politician. Where were these people 7 or 8 years ago?

A politician is full of crap! Good thing someone alerted the media.

I mean cmon, they all do this crap.

in 1992 the Pubs were up in arms at the idea of letting a guy who ducked out on Nam be the CinC. Flash forward to 2000 and suddenly that just wasnt important. Although strangely enough the Dems now found it to be a shame.

FTFA: But some of those earmarks were similar or identical to ones included in the 2009 budget that Mr. Bush sent Congress last week. For example, Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Democratic whip, obtained an earmark of $1.5 million last year to deal with the emerald ash borer, a beetle that attacks trees, lawns and crops. Mr. Bush now wants more money to fight that insect

Six of one, half dozen of the other.

Watched me some talkin' heads this am and heard Pelosi biatching about Presidential earmarks after Bush did his disingenuous Tsk Tsk talk on Congressional earmarks.

Fixing the blame is Washington's game. Fixing the problem or even acknowledging the real problem of corporate over influence underlying the stated problems is apparently beyond their capabilities.

Both sides are farking you up the ar*e but the best they can do is complain that the other side aint even using grease.

Washington is broken. It only works for the special interest's short term gains and against the long term best interests of the country and the majority of the citizenry.

Anybody who tells you any different is either stupid, crazy, lying to you or trying to sell you sommat.

Digitalstrange: in 1992 the Pubs were up in arms at the idea of letting a guy who ducked out on Nam be the CinC. Flash forward to 2000 and suddenly that just wasnt important. Although strangely enough the Dems now found it to be a shame.

Well, there's a difference between not going, and Desertion.

BobtheFascist: Outside of the fish hatcheries I don't see the problem. IIRC, one of the govts main jobs is to build & maintain infrastructure. I would be intersted in seeing what the other "specific local tasks" are.

It's more of a question of if this is the appropriate level of government for the task. Building an interstate to connect Los Angeles to New York City, along with dozens of major cities in between would be in the domain of the federal government. Paying to repave Main Street in Littleburg because the local residents are into "low taxes for limited government" or just don't have the economic productivity to raise the required money isn't an issue for the feds.

Of course, things aren't quite as simple as I've stated above because of issues like cities using interstates as the main transportation mechanism for local traffic instead of building enough local transportation infrastructure to take care of themselves and let the interstates serve strictly as a way of moving people and goods long distances among the various states.

There will always be overlap and confusion over where the responsibility of one level of government ends and another level begins but the extremes are easy to identify. With earmarks and other pork, it is the items that are easily classified as being a need specific to one particular local area with little impact on the rest of the country or region that gets people really upset.

The problem is, once one pork item gets approved and is paid for by everyone, then everyone else wants their "fair" share too and it spirals out of control.

GIS for "earmark"

Is this another one of those threads where we get to watch the die-hard Republicans say "oh, uh, other than the 7 years I've supported Bush, he sucks and I never liked him to begin with"

or the Democrats say "SEE? SEE! HE farkED UP, POOPYPANTS!"

Pick a direction so I can figure out which asshole lines I should use!

flim springfield

Huh, that's the first time I noticed a distinction between earmarks and pork.

Earmarks - Useful little nuggets receiving funding.
Pork - Useless little nuggets receiving funding.

Some of those earmarks sound very worthwhile

"$6.5 million for research in Wyoming on the "fundamental properties of asphalt." - A big problem (at least out west), is trying to figure out which asphalt mixture can hold up under harsh conditions. I just read an article last week where my home state has to spend almost another $100 million to fix a crumbling road because they can't find the right asphalt mix. If they can learn more about how it holds together, hopefully it'll save money in the long run.

"He sought $3 million for a forest conservation project in Minnesota," - There's Bush's anti-environmental earmark

"$2.1 million for a neutrino detector at the South Pole" - And Bush's anti-science earmark

"$28 million for General Electric and Siemens to do research on hydrogen-fuel turbines." - More anti-science, anti-environmental stuff.

It's only pork when it's not going to your state or district. Kind of like tax deductions. My deduction is valid but yours is a undeserved loophole.


/The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money. - Alexis de Tocqueville

Steve Zodiac: /The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money. - Alexis de Tocqueville

Snopes that quote - it's a fake.

McCain/Coburn --- Say good bye to your pork.

Never gonna happen.