Originally Posted by flstf

I guess I am confused. After watching the debates it seemed like McCain and Obama were going at it for quite some time over who would be toughest at eliminating earmarks. I got the impression that both men would never sign a bill with earmarks again. In my defense I bet the majority of people watching the debates got the same impression.

Now I see that what he really said was “We need earmark reform. And when I’m president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.” I guess I thought that meant he would go over it line by line and veto any bill unless the earmarks tacked on were eliminated. I guess his line by line analysis of the latest spending bill means he either agrees with all the 8500 earmarks or has decided to not pick a fight with congress at this time. It should be noted that Republicans account for something like 40 to 45% of the earmarks added to this spending bill.