I am sick to death of hearing about freaking earmarks. Tired, tired, tired of it. McCain talks about earmarks constantly, like that is what drives the goddam budget. I've got two words for earmarks - so what!
Look at the money, please, look at the money then ask McCain where he is going to get the money to balance the budget as he says he is. His answers have so far talked about a better job of military spending, and....
CUTTING EARMARKS. You could make earmarks illegal and it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference. THAT'S NOT WHERE THE MONEY IS YOU CRAZY OLD COOT!!!!!!!
From Wikipedia, here is a listing of the Bush budget request and where the money goes:
The President's budget for 2008 totals $2.9 trillion. Percentages in parentheses indicate percentage change compared to 2007. This budget request is broken down by the following expenditures:
Mandatory spending: $1.788 trillion (+4.2%)
$608 billion (+4.5%) - Social Security
$386 billion (+5.2%) - Medicare
$209 billion (+5.6%) - Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)
$324 billion (+1.8%) - Unemployment/Welfare/Other mandatory spending
$261 billion (+9.2%) - Interest on National Debt
Discretionary spending: $1.114 trillion (+3.1%)
$481.4 billion (+12.1%) - United States Department of Defense
$145.2 billion (+45.8%) - Global War on Terror
$69.3 billion (+0.3%) - Health and Human Services
$56.0 billion (+0.0%) - United States Department of Education
$39.4 billion (+18.7%) - United States Department of Veterans Affairs
$35.2 billion (+1.4%) - US Department of Housing and Urban Development
$35.0 billion (+22.0%) - State and Other International Programs
$34.3 billion (+7.2%) - Department of Homeland Security
$24.3 billion (+6.6%) - Energy
$20.2 billion (+4.1%) - Department of Justice
$20.2 billion (+3.1%) - Department of Agriculture
$17.3 billion (+6.8%) - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
$12.1 billion (+13.1%) - Department of Transportation
$12.1 billion (+6.1%) - Department of Treasury
$10.6 billion (+2.9%) - United States Department of the Interior
$10.6 billion (-9.4%) - United States Department of Labor
$51.8 billion (+9.7%) - Other On-budget Discretionary Spending
$39.0 billion - Other Off-budget Discretionary Spending
The Iraq war and the Afghanistan war are not part of the defense budget; they are appropriations.
Note that last line. That adds approximately $150 Billion to the total.
So, to keep it simple, the grand total of all earmarks is $12 Billion. Basically, one month in Iraq. Getting the picture? Too often we get so angry at the message we forget to remind ourselves of the details. It's not like appropriations will go away, if earmarks are "disallowed" they will cease being earmarks and become appropriations bills, further clogging up the business of governing and keeping us from discussing the issues that will make a difference.
I highly recommend Ross Perot's site, perotcharts.com. This is a great resource when discussing the economy, he isn't partisan in his facts, and it boils a lot of this down to its essence as only Perot could.
How to make the mandatory spending level keep up with the growth in the population that will be eligible for it is one of our biggest challenges. I sure as hell don't see how you do that cutting revenues, but perhaps the economic genius that is John McCain can explain that to me.
When you hear that myth that we spend more on Social Security than we do on defense, well here you go. Like most things you hear, that is bullshit. When you add the budgets for DOD, Global War on Terror, Homeland Security and, to be conservative, the off budget amount we spend in Iraq (let's call it only 10 Billion a month), the total, effective DoD budget is $780 Billion a year. As you can see, Social Security in the President's budget request was $608 Billion.
A few other things to take a special note of:
Look at the growth in the Department of Education Budget (hint- it's zero).
Look at the growth in the Department of Veteran's Affairs budget. How does that compare with the aging Vietnam Vet population added to the growth of the number of veterans of the Global War on Terror (that number is now over 2 million people). The Bush plan actually shrinks that budget in the out years, when every expert states the need by the dramatically large jump in number of veterans will grow far beyond its current levels.
So, screw education, screw veterans (you know, the part where we actually honor their service by taking care of them when they come home instead of walk around amongst them for photo ops). That is the McCain plan as well.
When will John give us the big picture, in detail? Stop talking about fucking earmarks that equal one month in Iraq and tell us how you are going to balance the fact that the current rate of entitlement spending will far outstrip the supply of money to fund it. Tell us how and when you will reduce the total Security spend. Tell us how you are going to balance the budget and do all the things you say your are going to do.
Take that pen you waive and speak all "manly" with about vetoing the first earmark that comes across your desk and write down the names and dollar amounts of every contributor to your own 527 variant, the International Republican Institute. Explain to us all, use your earmark veto pen if you wish, how these people giving thousands of dollars and getting access to you and your cronies doesn't influence you.
And finally, take your earmark veto pen and learn some math with it. Divide 12 Billion by 3 Trillion, then tell us how you will handle what's left of the budget, you demented Chucky knock off.