The Swine Line

McCain Touts Earmark Opposition on Hill

Sen. John McCain returned to Capitol Hill to cast a vote against pork-barrel spending, a centerpiece of the presumptive Republican nominee’s economic agenda and part of his broader campaign on government reform.

The amendment, which failed on a procedural vote late last night, was introduced by Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) and would have put a one-year moratorium on earmarks, the line items for projects in a lawmaker’s home area inserted into spending bills.

Amid a growing battle cry against earmarks, Sen. McCain’s Democratic presidential opponents, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, joined in as co-sponsors of the amendment on Monday. Both Democrats also returned to Washington from the campaign trail for votes on the budget, including the earmark moratorium.

Sen. McCain cleared his morning schedule for the vote, canceling a public event in Harrisburg, Pa. When the vote was delayed, he headed to Philadelphia for a fund-raiser, missing other votes, including an amendment on immigration. He returned in time to vote on the earmark moratorium.

“He’s been a huge supporter of this cause for his entire career,” said Leslie Paige, media director of the nonpartisan Citizens Against Government Waste. “He was antiearmark before antiearmarking was cool.”

On the stump Tuesday in St. Louis, Sen. McCain derided two spending bills that included earmarks totaling “$35 billion, B, billion, dollars.” The Arizona senator has never had an earmark attached to his name.

In fiscal 2008, Sen. Clinton of New York had 261 earmarks totaling $266 million, according to the Citizens Against Government Waste. In 2005, the group named her one of two recipients of the “Porker of the Year” award. Sen. Obama had 53 earmarks totaling $126 million in fiscal year 2008, according to the government-waste group.