Government waste is ruinous; may other candidates address it
McCain blasts Senate for not halting earmarks
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by Johanna Neuman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, March 14, 2008
Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, blasted his Senate colleagues today for failing to pass a moratorium on earmarks that fund pork-barrel projects without committee review.One day after the Senate failed in a late-night vote to enact the ban, McCain was back on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania -- the next stop on the primary calendar, April 22 -- railing against lawmakers' pet projects.
"We got 29 votes," McCain told a town hall meeting in Springfield, Pa. "The moral of the story is, the one place left in America where they don't get it is in our nation's capital."
Noting that only six Democrats backed the ban -- including the two Democrats running for president -- McCain said that in the past two years, Congress has spent $36 billion on earmarks "in these massive spending bills," money that could have been spent to "give every American a $1,000 tax cut."
As he has in the past, McCain promised that if elected president, he would stop earmarks by vetoing bills that include the porkbarrel spending. As for their authors, he said, "I will make them famous."
Though McCain has already clinched the GOP delegate race, he is using the opportunity of a primary contest to campaign in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state in the fall. "I intend to be here, to campaign here, to win [the general election] with your help."
During a question-and-answer session, McCain defended the war in Iraq but faulted the Bush administration for funding the war through emergency appropriations. Asked to pledge that he would fund the war by general appropriation, McCain said, "Yes, that should have happened a long time ago."
On domestic issues, he defended the No Child Left Behind program, which some educators revile for putting emphasis on tests rather than learning.
"I would not repeal it, it's a good beginning," he said, vowing to work with Democrats to "fix this so we can continue to improve. It's not nearly what we hoped for [but] to scrap it would be a mistake."
McCain plans to travel to Europe and the Middle East next week with two colleagues on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Joe Lieberman (I-Ct.) and Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.). Asked to defend the trip, McCain said it is one of many "periodic and frequent trips" that he's made overseas to consult with allies on military issues. "We will not be talking about presidential politics," he said.
The Arizona senator was introduced by former Navy Secretary John Lehman, who told the audience that today marked the anniversary of McCain's release from a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp after five years of captivity. As McCain was leaving the event, a fellow former Marine yelled out, "We have your back, sir."
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