Clinton rolls a sizable pork barrel

[Bread and Circus]

http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=LatestNews.NewsStories&ContentRecord_id=c64638b3-802a-23ad-40ed-c04fd89a4843&IsPrint=true

Clinton rolls a sizable pork barrel ;
The senator embraces 'earmarks' as a way to help N.Y. She's received campaign funds from project beneficiaries.


By Tom Hamburger and Dan Morain
Los Angeles Times


December 10, 2007

It's a real estate developer's sugar-plum dream: a mega-shopping mall complete with 10 Broadway-style theaters, an indoor river, a Tuscan village and a 39-story luxury hotel sheathed in green solar panels shaped like giant blades of grass. Plus as much as $1 billion in government-backed financing, thanks in part to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

...

Clinton is not the biggest earmarker in Congress; senior congressional leaders and members of the appropriations committees can and do write many more such provisions into the huge spending bills they draft. But Clinton does significantly more earmarking than most others with her relatively low level of seniority.

...

Her record stands in contrast with others in the Senate seeking the presidency, particularly John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.). McCain, who has long opposed earmarks, does not write them. Obama has used the device, but now declines to earmark funds for private companies; he uses earmarks only to secure funds for government projects such as road building and hospital construction. Other senators seeking the presidency provide earmarks to home-state constituents and collect donations from recipients of the federal largesse. But The Times review found that Clinton does it on a different scale.

...

Since Clinton arrived in the Senate, she has collected in excess of $1 million from earmark beneficiaries and their associates.

"This pattern shows that Clinton has made aggressive use of the pay-to-play earmark game, " said Keith Ashdown, research director for the Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington.

[Bread and Circus]

1. Nothing will significantly change if Hillary becomes President...

[FrenchieCat]

2. It will....for about a nano-second!

[Bread and Circus]

3. You think Hillary is going to put an end to the Iraq war? Guess again..

From the same article:

Because of her perch on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Clinton has been able to earmark $1.4 billion for defense contractors in New York state since she arrived in the Senate...

[Clintonite]

4. Its her job to fight for what her state needs! Quit grasping straws.

[Bread and Circus]

5. Nope... read this article.... she funnels money to PRIVATE CORPORATIONS

that in turn FUND HER

http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=LatestNews.NewsStories&ContentRecord_id=c64638b3-802a-23ad-40ed-c04fd89a4843&IsPrint=true

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE... it's on the senate website.

It's awesome and would make any OBJECTIVE Clinton supporter think twice.

[Bread and Circus]

6. see this is how politics work for her these days...

http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=LatestNews.NewsStories&ContentRecord_id=c64638b3-802a-23ad-40ed-c04fd89a4843&IsPrint=true

Clinton's notable earmark activity is not explained solely by the fact that she represents a populous state. The extent of her earmarking far outstrips that of Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), for example, who represents a larger state. Boxer secured $79 million in earmarks this year, according to the taxpayers group.

Like all presidential candidates, Clinton places a premium on bundlers, people who use their networks of friends and associates to raise large sums of money. Clinton singles out people who raise $100,000 or more as "Hillraisers."

At least eight Hillraisers are affiliated with recipients of her earmarks. One is James Flaws, chief financial officer of one of New York's major employers, Corning Inc. Once heavy GOP donors, Corning employees have given Clinton $236,000 since 1999, including $106,000 for her presidential campaign.


This is not a "straw" this is very important issue.

But it seems the Hillary supporters do not care about issues...

[Nite Owl]

7. As a New Yorker

Senator Clinton has every right to bring this money back to NY. Maybe it helps developers but it brings jobs to an area that needs them. NY pays out far more to the federal government than we get back.

http://www.heartheissues.com/federalfunding.html

[DJ13]

8. There was a headline on MSNBC's ticker this evening about this

It seems Hillary wrote a $1 million earmark for some church, and two weeks after it passed the head of that church endorsed her campaign.

Thats all the headline said, dont know the full details.

[Bread and Circus]

9. That's tip of the iceberg...

[CubsWaitNoYankees]

10. Not surprising.

Republicans do this, it's only natural the "Goldwater Girl" would too.