Pork Spending among the Final Three

[nbs2]

Sen Clinton earmarked $296m. Sen Obama earmarked $97m. Sen McCain earmarked nothing.

I'm not telling you guys what to make of it - I'm just pointing it out. (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/04/pig-book.html)

[solvs]

Per Obama's "pork":
This includes about $402,000 for a juvenile delinquency program at the Shedd Aquarium and $383,000 for another ethanol research plant.
That's pork?

Earmarks do not equal pork. Not saying he doesn't have any, I'm sure he does. And I know Clinton has some, they were mentioned briefly in the early part of the campaign. McCain has also had earmarks though:

http://www.baltimoresun2.com/talk/showthread.php?t=139214

[TheQuestion]

Doesn't every legislator defend every bit of spending as absolutely essential? Is pork a matter of perspective, or least how well it can be spun?

[mactastic]

Kinda hard to earmark when you're skipping work so often.

Besides, McBush has done plenty of dipping into the trough (http://realitycheck08.org/2007/06/14/does-mccain-criticize-pork-and-bring-home-the-bacon/http://) before. It's not like he's unfamiliar with the process...

[ucfgrad93]

Kinda hard to earmark when you're skipping work so often.

Out of the 3 Senators left, here are their voting records (the records start when they entered the Senate, thus the different total amounts of votes)


Obama had votes recorded 1172 times; no vote recorded 209 times for a 17.8% No Vote Record

McCain had votes recorded 3989 times; no vote recorded 624 times for a 15.6% No Vote Record

Clinton had votes recorded 2480 times; no vote recorded 182 times for a 7.3% No Vote Record


I have to say, I'm surprised that Hillary has the lowest percentage.

Source - http://www.govtrack.us/data/us/110/repstats/novote.xml

[mactastic]

Out of the 3 Senators left, here are their voting records (the records start when they entered the Senate, thus the different total amounts of votes)


Obama had votes recorded 1172 times; no vote recorded 209 times for a 17.8% No Vote Record

McCain had votes recorded 3989 times; no vote recorded 624 times for a 15.6% No Vote Record

Clinton had votes recorded 2480 times; no vote recorded 182 times for a 7.3% No Vote Record


I have to say, I'm surprised that Hillary has the lowest percentage.

Source - http://www.govtrack.us/data/us/110/repstats/novote.xml
Well then, to compare apples to apples, shouldn't we be examining all pork earmarked by McCain since he joined the Senate? I believe that should include the taxpayer-funded bailout of the S&Ls from the 80s.

Alternately, if we're only going to look at pork from this year, then we should consider McCain's attendance record from this year (http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/mccain-stops-by-the-senate/http://). This year he has missed about half of all Senate votes, meaning he is collecting a paycheck for doing about half his work. This is the worst record among the three candidates.

[szark]

Out of the 3 Senators left, here are their voting records (the records start when they entered the Senate, thus the different total amounts of votes)


Obama had votes recorded 1172 times; no vote recorded 209 times for a 17.8% No Vote Record

McCain had votes recorded 3989 times; no vote recorded 624 times for a 15.6% No Vote Record

Clinton had votes recorded 2480 times; no vote recorded 182 times for a 7.3% No Vote Record


I have to say, I'm surprised that Hillary has the lowest percentage.

Source - http://www.govtrack.us/data/us/110/repstats/novote.xml

You know, I'm not sure that data indicates what you think it does. The page says a "NoVote" means that their ballot was recorded as a "NoVote", which means they were present but didn't vote yes or no.

Looking at the stats (if I'm reading them correctly):

Obama voted 1172 times over 40 months, for an average of 29.3 votes per month. If we only count yes/no votes, we get an average of 24.1 actual votes per month. (963/40)

McCain voted 3989 times over 183 months, for an average of 21.8 votes per month. If we only count yes/no votes, we get an average of 18.4 actual votes per month. (3365/183)

Clinton voted 2480 times over 88 months, for an average of 28.2 votes per month. If we only count yes/no votes, we get an average of 26.1 actual votes per month. (2298/88)

So Clinton still seems to have the best percentage of actual votes cast, but McCain definitely has the worst percentage.

For comparison, Senator Benjamin Cardin has apparently been serving as long as McCain. He voted 8227 times over the same 183 months, for an average of 45.0 votes per month. If we only count yes/no votes, we get an average of 44.0 actual votes per month. (8044/183)

I would be interested in knowing how many votes have come up in the senate during the past year, and how many of those were attended by the candidates. (I'm sure the information is out there, but I don't have time to look for it right now.)

[stevegmu]

Odd how a thread concerning pork-barrel spending and earmarks turned into a bash McCain thread so quickly...

[solvs]

Odd how a thread concerning pork-barrel spending and earmarks turned into a bash McCain thread so quickly...
Odd that you would resurrect it just to say that.

Maybe it's because of the original hypothesis that McCain has no pork, while the others have lots of it. That turned out to be not so true. Had they said they all had pork, or better yet, stuff they wanted to spend money on, it wouldn't have been as much of a problem. Because it would be true. And not quite as biased. Some of it was good, some of it was bad. With all 3 of them. If someone says something biased and incorrect, why wouldn't we correct it? You do.

[solvs]

McCain opposes earmarks — except for the ones he likes (http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/18/mccain-opposes-earmarks-except-for-the-ones-he-likes/)

And just for added fun:

Delivery of 32,000 Cosignatures to FEC Complaint Against McCain (Video) (http://firedoglake.com/2008/04/01/delivery-of-32000-cosignatures-to-fec-complaint-against-mccain-video/)
DNC Wants Court to Force Action Against McCain on Public Money (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/04/dnc-wants-court.html)
DNC Files Lawsuit About Campaign Finance Weasel John McCain (http://firedoglake.com/2008/04/14/dnc-files-lawsuit-about-campaign-finance-weasil-john-mccain/)

Can someone tell me why Obama should be held to rules he hasn't really agreed to that McCain has already broken? :confused:

[solvs]

Kinda old thread, but whatever:

McCain's '97 Lobbyist Bill Would Cripple Current Campaign (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/20/mccains-97-lobbyist-bill_n_102662.html)

And with all of the lobbyists being kicked out of his campaign and tossed aside now that he's ahead, they're starting to feel a little unappreciated:

Lobbyists (to McCain): This is our thanks? (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10497.html)