The McCain campaign is making a big deal about how he is going to stand up to federal earmarks to save us from economic oblivion, conveniently forgetting the pounds of juicy, delicious pork requested by Sarah Palin (at least now we know her name as he said in the Twin Cities).
What's the big benefit? None according to John Cole:
The total national debt, as I write this, is $9,679,000,000,000.00 (nine and a half trillion).In other words, let's roll up our sleeves and start pricking the budget.
The Budget for 2008 is close to $3,000,000,000,000.00 (three trillion).
Our budget deficit for this year is going to range in between $400-500,000,000,000.00 (four hundred to five hundred billion, give or take a few billion).
The total value of wasteful earmarks in 2008 (according to CAGW) will be approximately $18,000,000,000.00 (eighteen billion).
In other words, when McCain talks about earmarks, he is talking about 3% of our annual budget deficit, .6% of our annual budget, and a number too small to even report when discussing our national debt. Or, put another way, he is talking about two months in Iraq, something he wants to keep going indefinitely (or -- per me -- tax cuts for the wealthy).
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