McCain Agrees with DeMint: Time to go Cold Turkey on Pork Projects
Taxpayers applaud presidential candidate backing of Sen. DeMint’s earmark amendment

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Thursday Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) pledged support for Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-SC) earmark reform proposal and confirmed he would veto any earmark presented for his signature.  Sen. DeMint will offer an amendment to the Democrat’s budget resolution to establish a one-year moratorium on congressional earmarks. 

On a conference call for conservative bloggers, Sen. McCain reflected, “I really can’t tell you, traveling and campaigning now for many months, how dispirited the Bridge to Nowhere or earmark and pork-barrel spending was to our Republican base.  We lost in 2006 not because of Iraq but because spending got out of control.”

“Earmarks are the stray dogs of federal spending – you might not notice one, but letting 12,000 roam around really adds up and also reflects the overall irresponsibility of Congress’s big spenders,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. “Congressional Republicans have continued to fight for meaningful earmark reform and Sen. DeMint’s amendment is a step forward to curtail the stray dog problem on Capitol Hill.”

Sen. DeMint’s announcement of the moratorium amendment explains, “…The earmark process allows politicians to fund pet projects based on political power instead of merit. Earmarks are rarely subject to public hearings or oversight, and they invite the kind of corruption that has sent lawmakers to jail…Earmarks are a bipartisan addiction and the only solution is to go cold turkey. Congress is not going to be able to kick the habit unless it calls a time-out.”

“The Dems won seats in 2006 promising to put an end to earmarks.  Once they got there, they decided their pork projects are more nutritious than those of the past,” continued Norquist. “Taxpayers know pork is pork and I applaud Sen. McCain for joining Sen. DeMint and other allies in Congress to put an end to carving out tax dollars for pet projects.”