Sarah Palin: Earmark Queen Of The Earmark State
It now appears that yet another claim made by Sarah Palin when she addressed the Republicans was simply not true.
She claimed that she "championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress."
This was music to the ears of the faithful gathered at the Convention.
However, The Wonk Room are reporting that she was actually the Earmark Queen when she was the mayor of the Alaskan town of Wasilla.
It just seems that every time anyone looks into any claim she makes - sold the jet on Ebay, opposed the bridge to nowhere, fought against earmarks - on examination one finds that the story simply doesn't hold water.But even in her heavily earmarked state, Sarah Palin was the earmark queen.
From 2000 to 2003, she secured over $27 million in earmarks, averaging $6.7 million in federal money every year for her town of about 6,700 people.
An analysis of the databases of Taxpayers for Common Sense by Center for American Progress Action Fund Senior Fellow Scott Lilly puts these numbers in perspective.
He notes the following amounts:
–$50: The amount the average state received in earmarked funds, per capita in 2008
–$506: The amount received by Alaska’s citizen per capita in 2008, represented by the Senate’s earmarker in chief, Ted Stevens, ten times the national average
–Over $1000: The annual amount received per capita in Wasilla between 2000 and 2003, twice the 2008 Alaska state averageSome of these earmarks drew the scorn of Senator John McCain. The LA Time reports that, “three times in recent years, McCain’s catalogs of ‘objectionable’ spending have included earmarks for this small Alaska town, requested by its mayor at the time — Sarah Palin.”
I've never known a campaign to lie as often and as consistently as the McCain one is doing.
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