More On Earmarks
According to a report from the LA Times, since becoming New York’s junior Senator in 2001, Hillary Clinton has provided $500 million of earmarks that have specifically benefited 59 corporations. Approximately 64% of those corporations have provided funds to her campaigns through donations made by employees, executives, board members or lobbyists. Since Clinton arrived in the Senate, she has collected in excess of $1 million from earmark beneficiaries and their associates.
Clinton’s staff has maintained that she used the earmark privilege effectively for her constituents and denied any connection between her legislative action and campaign contributions.
In total Clinton has earmarked more than $2.3 billion in federal appropriations for projects in New York since her election to the Senate, much of it for public works projects funded in conjunction with fellow Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer and others in the New York congressional delegation.
Read more from the source article.
Tags: 2008 Elections | Clinton | Earmarks | Politics | Pork | Pork Barrel
December 10th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
The earmark reforms that have been put into place are not nearly enough; glad to see you blogging about this. It gets my blood boiling. Earmarks are often granted to those who have the most muscle, not necessarily to those who would benefit or need the funds the most, and the possibility (and probability) for corruption beyond what we know is frightening.
December 10th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Oh yeah! I don’t particularly care for McCain but his stance on earmarks and governmental “pork” in general is spot on.