Talk about trying to put some lipstick on a pig – Senator DeMint in the Wall Street Journal:
Let’s compare.
Mrs. Palin used her veto pen to slash more local projects than any other governor in the state’s history. She cut nearly 10% of Alaska’s budget this year, saving state residents $268 million. This included vetoing a $30,000 van for Campfire USA and $200,000 for a tennis court irrigation system. She succinctly justified these cuts by saying they were “not a state responsibility.”
Meanwhile in Washington, Mr. Obama voted for numerous wasteful earmarks last year, including: $12 million for bicycle paths, $450,000 for the International Peace Museum, $500,000 for a baseball stadium and $392,000 for a visitor’s center in Louisiana.
Mrs. Palin cut Alaska’s federal earmark requests in half last year, one of the strongest moves against earmarks by any governor. It took real leadership to buck Alaska’s decades-long earmark addiction.
Mr. Obama delivered over $100 million in earmarks to Illinois last year and has requested nearly a billion dollars in pet projects since 2005. His running mate, Joe Biden, is still indulging in earmarks, securing over $90 million worth this year.
Mrs. Palin also killed the infamous Bridge to Nowhere in her own state. Yes, she once supported the project: But after witnessing the problems created by earmarks for her state and for the nation’s budget, she did what others like me have done: She changed her position and saved taxpayers millions. Even the Alaska Democratic Party credits her with killing the bridge.
When the Senate had its chance to stop the Bridge to Nowhere and transfer the money to Katrina rebuilding, Messrs. Obama and Biden voted for the $223 million earmark, siding with the old boys’ club in the Senate. And to date, they still have not publicly renounced their support for the infamous earmark.
Mrs. Palin has proven courageous by taking on big spenders in her own party. In March of this year, the Anchorage Daily News reported that, “Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens is aggravated about what he sees as Gov. Sarah Palin’s antagonism toward the earmarks he uses to steer federal money to the state.”
The Porky Pig in this argument is Barack Obama and his unending addiction to using taxpayer money to buy support in his home State of Illinois – of course, its not like Obama is out of step with his party. Democrats didn’t pick up the name “tax and spend liberals” by accident, you know? It takes a real big step into the Democrats’ Alternate Universe in order to get to a place where supporters of massive, out-of-control government spending dare to condemn someone else for not being 100%-right-from-the-start against a particular bit of government spending.
If we elect McCain/Palin in November we can be certain of one thing – we’ll have two people in Washington who are not interested in advancing their careers on the back of the American taxpayer. McCain and Palin prefer to advance by hard work and showing that they have good ideas – Obama and Biden prefer to shower people with so much government swag that no one notices that its really just more of the same. What is especially refreshing in this is Palin’s veto of spending for the reason of it not being a government responsibility – this very concept is alien to Democrats, who can’t imaging anything outside of government responsibility.
There is a new wind blowing in American politics, and it comes from Arizona and Alaska, not from Illinois and Deleware.
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