McCain blames Minnesota bridge collapse on wasted money

[Saguaro]

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - Republican John McCain said Wednesday that the bridge collapse in Minnesota that killed 13 people last year would not have happened if Congress had not wasted so much money on pork-barrel spending.

Federal investigators cite undersize steel plates as the "critical factor" in the collapse of the bridge. Heavy loads of construction materials on the bridge also contributed to the disaster that injured 145 people on Aug. 1, according to preliminary findings by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Yet McCain, while campaigning in Pennsylvania, told reporters: "The bridge in Minneapolis didn't collapse because there wasn't enough money. The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects."

McCain, the expected GOP presidential nominee, regularly rails against "earmarks," the pet projects that lawmakers tuck into spending bills, such as the proposed $223 million "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska.

The Arizona senator says he would eliminate earmarks, estimated at $18 billion last year, and would make each project compete in the regular congressional funding process.

"I think there is a long, long list of earmarks which went to unnecessary and unwanted projects that I think should have gone to the bridge in Minnesota," McCain said. "I don't know whether it would have gone or not, but if you're spending $223 million on a bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 people on it ..."

Democrats criticized McCain's comments. "It is reprehensible that John McCain would use a national tragedy to make a political point that isn't even grounded in facts," said Damien LaVera, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.

McCain also criticized earmarks for projects in New Orleans that didn't help protect the city from Hurricane Katrina, saying a congressional earmark helped to dig a channel outside New Orleans that helped speed the hurricane into the city.

McCain said such projects "have everything to do with the power and influence of an individual congressman or senator and has nothing to do with the actual transportation needs of the United States."

On the same day, McCain was confronted with an earmark he did consider worthy. During a forum at Lehigh Valley Hospital, he met a woman with ovarian cancer who was treated in a clinical trial funded with $80 million in congressional earmarks.

The hospital was showing off an electronic medical records system that is virtually paper-free.

McCain insisted he was not trying to have it both ways and said that deserving projects can get money through regular channels.

"It's the process I object to," he said. "I'm sure that I can give you a list of projects the Mafia funds, and they would probably be good projects. But I can't give you a justification for the Mafia. I can't give you a justification for the corruption that's been bred which has sent members of Congress to the federal prison," he said.

"Look, if we reform the process, then the money will take care of itself. It's a corrupt process," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080501/ap_on_el_pr/mccain;_ylt=AprSkO3Km6HYNofQsBWq9lGyFz4D

[Partyless]

So what's he plan to do about the pork spending?

and


"Look, if we reform the process, then the money will take care of itself. It's a corrupt process," he said.


Hasn't he been part of that 'process' for many many years???????

It's a political tennis match - he's chest thumping about pork spending (forgetting he's been a senator for how many years and part of this 'corrupt' process) and the Democrats are squealing that he can't use a national tragedy to get a point across.

1 - 1 - McCain's serve. stay tuned

[Ringo]

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - Republican John McCain said Wednesday that the bridge collapse in Minnesota that killed 13 people last year would not have happened if Congress had not wasted so much money on pork-barrel spending.

Federal investigators cite undersize steel plates as the "critical factor" in the collapse of the bridge. Heavy loads of construction materials on the bridge also contributed to the disaster that injured 145 people on Aug. 1, according to preliminary findings by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Yet McCain, while campaigning in Pennsylvania, told reporters: "The bridge in Minneapolis didn't collapse because there wasn't enough money. The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects."

McCain, the expected GOP presidential nominee, regularly rails against "earmarks," the pet projects that lawmakers tuck into spending bills, such as the proposed $223 million "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska.

The Arizona senator says he would eliminate earmarks, estimated at $18 billion last year, and would make each project compete in the regular congressional funding process.

"I think there is a long, long list of earmarks which went to unnecessary and unwanted projects that I think should have gone to the bridge in Minnesota," McCain said. "I don't know whether it would have gone or not, but if you're spending $223 million on a bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 people on it ..."

Democrats criticized McCain's comments. "It is reprehensible that John McCain would use a national tragedy to make a political point that isn't even grounded in facts," said Damien LaVera, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.

McCain also criticized earmarks for projects in New Orleans that didn't help protect the city from Hurricane Katrina, saying a congressional earmark helped to dig a channel outside New Orleans that helped speed the hurricane into the city.

McCain said such projects "have everything to do with the power and influence of an individual congressman or senator and has nothing to do with the actual transportation needs of the United States."

On the same day, McCain was confronted with an earmark he did consider worthy. During a forum at Lehigh Valley Hospital, he met a woman with ovarian cancer who was treated in a clinical trial funded with $80 million in congressional earmarks.

The hospital was showing off an electronic medical records system that is virtually paper-free.

McCain insisted he was not trying to have it both ways and said that deserving projects can get money through regular channels.

"It's the process I object to," he said. "I'm sure that I can give you a list of projects the Mafia funds, and they would probably be good projects. But I can't give you a justification for the Mafia. I can't give you a justification for the corruption that's been bred which has sent members of Congress to the federal prison," he said.

"Look, if we reform the process, then the money will take care of itself. It's a corrupt process," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080501/ap_on_el_pr/mccain;_ylt=AprSkO3Km6HYNofQsBWq9lGyFz4D

McCain fully understands the sleazeball Liberals and thier Pork projects, and ALL need to be exposed, from Byrd to Reid to Landrue adn the Lousianna thieves and cowards!!! Liberals a very POOR excuse for Americans at that level, the crooked traitor bastards!!!:mw:mw:godzilla:godzilla

[issac the dragon]

McCain was right about the channel deeping project. The money had been earmarked to strengthen the levees and was spent on the channel deepening, because that was what business leaders wanted. Apparently, part of the problem is that states don't have to use the money for what it was intended for. We all saw that with the money distributed to make our communications in states stronger, and was used for everything but that.

McCain has not offered any other way to get projects through the political process. No congressman or woman wants to help anyone but their own constituants. This country needs to get together and remember, "United we stand."

[jim]

McCain was right about the channel deeping project. The money had been earmarked to strengthen the levees and was spent on the channel deepening, because that was what business leaders wanted. Apparently, part of the problem is that states don't have to use the money for what it was intended for. We all saw that with the money distributed to make our communications in states stronger, and was used for everything but that.

McCain has not offered any other way to get projects through the political process. No congressman or woman wants to help anyone but their own constituants. This country needs to get together and remember, "United we stand."

I don't think it will happen again: We are too far apart:brr

[AYFR]

So what's he plan to do about the pork spending?

and



Hasn't he been part of that 'process' for many many years???????

It's a political tennis match - he's chest thumping about pork spending (forgetting he's been a senator for how many years and part of this 'corrupt' process) and the Democrats are squealing that he can't use a national tragedy to get a point across.

1 - 1 - McCain's serve. stay tuned
He plans on stopping it. He said he will veto pork spending.

No he was not a part of it. Exactly how many pork projects has McCain asked for? Voted for?
Now how many has he voted against them?

Contrast that with
How many has Hillary and Obama asked for and voted for?
Against?

[Trueblue]

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/06/mccain-earmark/

http://www.democrats.org/a/2007/11/mccains_new_ad.php

[Saguaro]

CLEVELAND - Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Thursday backed off his assertion that pork-barrel spending led to last year's deadly bridge collapse in Minneapolis.

With Democrats criticizing him for citing wasteful spending as the cause of the disaster, McCain told reporters in Cleveland, "No, I said it would have received a higher priority, which it deserved."

That statement was in contrast to McCain's remarks to reporters aboard his campaign bus as it rolled through Pennsylvania on Wednesday: "The bridge in Minneapolis didn't collapse because there wasn't enough money. The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects."

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board suspect a design flaw — undersize steel plates — and heavy loads of construction materials as the cause of the disaster Aug. 1, according to preliminary findings.

Democrats accused McCain of using a tragedy that killed 13 people and injured 145 others to make a political point.

"The last thing we need is a misinformed presidential aspirant posturing at our expense," said Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., said, "He is manipulating a tragedy that took 13 lives in order to advance his election campaign."

Even Republican Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota said McCain was wrong.

"The bridge didn't collapse because there wasn't enough money," Coleman said during a conference call with reporters.

"I understand Senator McCain's deep concern about earmarks," he said. "In this instance, I simply think he's wrong if he somehow ties the collapse of the bridge to a funding issue. Let's get the full data."

The remarks also put Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty — a national co-chairman of McCain's campaign and potential vice presidential running mate — in an awkward position. In January, Pawlenty had admonished critics to "quit exploiting the bridge tragedy to advance their political agenda."

Pawlenty struck a more cautious tone Thursday. "I don't know what he's basing that on, other than the general premise that projects got misprioritized throughout time," he said. "We have to let the NTSB weigh in on this before anybody can make a final conclusion."

On Thursday, McCain said he was worried most about safety.

"All I can do to respond to those critics is, my job is to make America as safe as possible," he told reporters. "My job is to prevent those tragedies, such as the canal that was dug in New Orleans that brought the hurricane up and did more damage to New Orleans."

The New Orleans project was paid for with a congressional "earmark," funding that lawmakers slip into spending bills outside of the regular funding process.

McCain promises to rid the federal budget of earmarks if he is elected, because he says earmarks take money away from much-needed transportation projects and other priorities.

"And I maintain, again, that I believe that when we fund a bridge to Alaska, fund a highway in Florida that the people there don't even want, then money is diverted from that much-needed project," he said.

"Do I know specifically whether it would have replaced that bridge in Minneapolis? No, but I know that funding would have been available for higher-priority projects," he said.

When he made the earlier statement, McCain was criticizing Democratic rival Barack Obama for opposing his idea of a summer holiday from federal gas taxes. The other Democratic candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, supports the proposal.

Obama opposes it because federal gas taxes go into a highway fund for building roads and bridges.

"Remember that bridge in Minneapolis?" Obama said in Indiana last week. "We're already short on money in terms of investing."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080501/ap_on_el_pr/mccain_bridge_collapse;_ylt=AusBQlO4YXJkQiQL.jZVou 9h24cA

Flip Flop

[Saguaro]

McCain fully understands the sleazeball Liberals and thier Pork projects, and ALL need to be exposed, from Byrd to Reid to Landrue adn the Lousianna thieves and cowards!!! Liberals a very POOR excuse for Americans at that level, the crooked traitor bastards!!!:mw:mw:godzilla:godzilla


Oh really ?

Senior Republican appropriators in the Senate have collected more money in earmarks than any other members of Congress, even though President Bush and GOP leaders have forcefully criticized “pork-barrel spending.”


Not only have these lawmakers defied their leaders, they have also taken a much greater share of the pot set aside for rank-and-file Republicans than have senior Democrats. As a result, some on the Hill are grumbling privately that GOP appropriators are “not only the kings of pork, they’re outright hogs,” in the words of one Senate Republican aide.



But Republican appropriators argue they are following the rules, that their work is open to public scrutiny, and that they are taking care of their constituents’ needs. They also say that Bush is holding them to a double standard by submitting to Congress specific spending requests while deriding lawmakers’ spending priorities as wasteful earmarks.


Sen. Thad Cochran (Miss.), ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, has collected $774 million worth of earmarks in 12 spending bills. After Cochran, Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska), the second-ranking Republican on Appropriations, secured more money for special projects than any other member of Congress: $502 million.


Rep. Bill Young (Fla.), the ranking Republican on the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, is the second-biggest recipient of earmarked funds in the House, securing $161 million. Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), the subcommittee’s chairman, secured $162 million in funds.


Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan group that tracks earmarks and federal spending, compiled the figures.


The Republicans’ status as the biggest earmark winners in Congress is surprising because they no longer enjoy majority control. As a result, they have seen their share of the federal spending pie sliced by a third.


The majority party typically gets to allocate 60 percent of the federal funds set aside for special projects such as waterworks, roads, defense contracts and housing. Members of the minority have 40 percent to divvy among themselves.


Although the GOP share shrunk significantly, senior Republican appropriators still managed to win more funding for their pet projects than senior Democratic appropriators.


“This shows funds are much more equitably divided on the Democratic side than on the Republican side,” said Scott Lilly, who formerly served as the Democratic staff director of the House Appropriations Committee. “Republicans are getting about a third less than the Democrats and the biggest [individual] recipients are Republicans.


“The concentration in a few baskets on the Republican side is much greater than anything on the Democratic side,” added Lilly, who is now a fellow at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. He added that top Republicans view their seniority “as providing them the right to take a huge portion of the moneys that are earmarked.

They think the appropriate amount is much higher than people on [the Democratic] side of the aisle.”


Brian Riedl, senior budget analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said the Republican Party is split over earmarks.


“I’m not sure the Republican Party has really settled on what it thinks about earmarks,” said Riedl. “Ever since the 2006 election, a lot of Republicans have gone out of their way to criticize earmarks, but a lot more Republicans have gone out of their way to receive earmarks.”

Young said it would be wrong to assume that the earmarks he has placed in various spending bills are for his personal political benefit. He said he has helped secure funding for two military bases that are not in his district: Camp Blanding, located in northern Florida, and an air national guard facility in Jacksonville.

“It’s not local, not pork. It has to do with national security and homeland security,” said Young. “

Young said that senior Defense Department officials come to him with requests for the military at large because he is the former chairman of the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee and the panel’s current ranking member.

Rep. Jerry Lewis (Calif.), ranking Republican on the full Appropriations panel, rounded out the top three House earmarkers. He collected $137 million in funds, far more than the Democratic chairman, Rep. David Obey (Wis.). Obey has his name attached to $90 million worth of projects in various spending bills.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/sens.-cochran-stevens-lead-in-earmark-tally-2007-12-03.html

[AYFR]

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/06/mccain-earmark/

http://www.democrats.org/a/2007/11/mccains_new_ad.php

New Pig Book says Hillary Clinton's tops in pork spending, Barack Obama's 2nd, but John McCain had none!

The nonpartisan taxpayer watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste is out with its newest Pig Book, an overwhelming detailing of all 11,610 pork barrel projects inserted in the current fiscal year's appropriations bills by individual members of Congress.

These semi-secret spending measures cost taxpayers an extra $17.2 billion this fiscal year alone. This is the first year legislators have had to attach their names to these measures.

That's B for billion dollar$. In extra spending. That typically didn't go through the usual legislative committee screening. A huge increase over the previous year.

And guess which one of the surviving presidential candidates likes pork the most? And the least?

According to the Pig Book ("The Book Washington Does Not Want You to Read"), New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is our new grand national oinker among presidential contenders for most pork barrel spending. She inserted a whopping 281 individual spending projects into bills for the benefit of New York interests at the cost of taxpayers everywhere.

That totals $296.2 million.

The new national hero, on the other hand, for not inserting one penny of pork barrel spending is the Republican Party's presumptive nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona. As a longtime staunch opponent of such earmarks, McCain may be expected to raise the subject of such special spending if Clinton becomes his Democratic opponent in the fall's general election.

He may also bring it up if his opponent is Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who may be a freshman senator but still isn't shy about inserting special earmarks into legislation cataloged by the taxpayer group's annual report. He accounted for 53 special earmarks, totaling almost $97.4 million.

This includes about $402,000 for a juvenile delinquency program at the Shedd Aquarium and $383,000 for another ethanol research plant.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/04/pig-book.html
CLEVELAND - Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Thursday backed off his assertion that pork-barrel spending led to last year's deadly bridge collapse in Minneapolis.

With Democrats criticizing him for citing wasteful spending as the cause of the disaster, McCain told reporters in Cleveland, "No, I said it would have received a higher priority, which it deserved."

That statement was in contrast to McCain's remarks to reporters aboard his campaign bus as it rolled through Pennsylvania on Wednesday: "The bridge in Minneapolis didn't collapse because there wasn't enough money. The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects."

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board suspect a design flaw — undersize steel plates — and heavy loads of construction materials as the cause of the disaster Aug. 1, according to preliminary findings.

Democrats accused McCain of using a tragedy that killed 13 people and injured 145 others to make a political point.

"The last thing we need is a misinformed presidential aspirant posturing at our expense," said Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., said, "He is manipulating a tragedy that took 13 lives in order to advance his election campaign."

Even Republican Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota said McCain was wrong.

"The bridge didn't collapse because there wasn't enough money," Coleman said during a conference call with reporters.

"I understand Senator McCain's deep concern about earmarks," he said. "In this instance, I simply think he's wrong if he somehow ties the collapse of the bridge to a funding issue. Let's get the full data."

The remarks also put Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty — a national co-chairman of McCain's campaign and potential vice presidential running mate — in an awkward position. In January, Pawlenty had admonished critics to "quit exploiting the bridge tragedy to advance their political agenda."

Pawlenty struck a more cautious tone Thursday. "I don't know what he's basing that on, other than the general premise that projects got misprioritized throughout time," he said. "We have to let the NTSB weigh in on this before anybody can make a final conclusion."

On Thursday, McCain said he was worried most about safety.

"All I can do to respond to those critics is, my job is to make America as safe as possible," he told reporters. "My job is to prevent those tragedies, such as the canal that was dug in New Orleans that brought the hurricane up and did more damage to New Orleans."

The New Orleans project was paid for with a congressional "earmark," funding that lawmakers slip into spending bills outside of the regular funding process.

McCain promises to rid the federal budget of earmarks if he is elected, because he says earmarks take money away from much-needed transportation projects and other priorities.

"And I maintain, again, that I believe that when we fund a bridge to Alaska, fund a highway in Florida that the people there don't even want, then money is diverted from that much-needed project," he said.

"Do I know specifically whether it would have replaced that bridge in Minneapolis? No, but I know that funding would have been available for higher-priority projects," he said.

When he made the earlier statement, McCain was criticizing Democratic rival Barack Obama for opposing his idea of a summer holiday from federal gas taxes. The other Democratic candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, supports the proposal.

Obama opposes it because federal gas taxes go into a highway fund for building roads and bridges.

"Remember that bridge in Minneapolis?" Obama said in Indiana last week. "We're already short on money in terms of investing."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080501/ap_on_el_pr/mccain_bridge_collapse;_ylt=AusBQlO4YXJkQiQL.jZVou 9h24cA

Flip Flop

He did not flip flop. I do not see anywhere in that article that he said that the collapse did not come from pork-spending.

He said that he couldn't be sure that was the reason. He never said that he he changed his opinion on why it happened just that he can't prove it.

[Saguaro]

It's very funny that the GOP ers can hold the Dems to the fire, but when it comes to one of their own they stammer and him haw.
McCain clearly stated gov waste caused the collapse of the bridge

[AYFR]

He did state that gov waste caused the collapse of the bridge no argument there, never said he did not say that. What I said was that he did not reverse that. He just said (in your second article) that he did not have proof.

BTW I did not stammer.

[Trueblue]

The Publicans have not wanted to pay for infrastructure for many years. Now we're going to pretend otherwise? Why?

[Yellowdogtexan]

Poor mclame drew some attacks for this latest example of the effect of his extreme age on his mental facilities. It seems that mcsame had to back down from these claims http://www.examiner.com/a-1370444~McCain_backs_off_gov_t_waste_as_cause_of_b ridge_collapse.html?cid=rss-Politics Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Thursday backed off his assertion that pork-barrel spending led to last year's deadly bridge collapse in Minneapolis.

With Democrats criticizing him for citing wasteful spending as the cause of the disaster, McCain told reporters in Cleveland, "No, I said it would have received a higher priority, which it deserved."

That statement was in contrast to McCain's remarks to reporters aboard his campaign bus as it rolled through Pennsylvania on Wednesday: "The bridge in Minneapolis didn't collapse because there wasn't enough money. The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects."....

Democrats accused McCain of using a tragedy that killed 13 people and injured 145 others to make a political point.

"The last thing we need is a misinformed presidential aspirant posturing at our expense," said Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., said, "He is manipulating a tragedy that took 13 lives in order to advance his election campaign."
Even Republican Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota said McCain was wrong.

"The bridge didn't collapse because there wasn't enough money," Coleman said during a conference call with reporters.

"I understand Senator McCain's deep concern about earmarks," he said. "In this instance, I simply think he's wrong if he somehow ties the collapse of the bridge to a funding issue. Let's get the full data."

The remarks also put Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty - a national co-chairman of McCain's campaign and potential vice presidential running mate - in an awkward position. In January, Pawlenty had admonished critics to "quit exploiting the bridge tragedy to advance their political agenda."

Pawlenty struck a more cautious tone Thursday. "I don't know what he's basing that on, other than the general premise that projects got misprioritized throughout time," he said. "We have to let the NTSB weigh in on this before anybody can make a final conclusion."mccain's claims are just a futher example as to how senile the old man is getting. Mclame's claims also can be used against Norm Coleman later which is nice