Obama on Earmarks:

On his website, Obama says that he’s backed legislation that has pushed for more transparency for earmarks.

But- He’s had his fair share:

“Obama’s total earmark requests (when teamed up with other senators) is $399,766,475. The price tag for his solo earmark requests is $321,766,475.” (link)

McCain attacked him for it and he said: “We’ve actually disclosed, John, all our earmarks. And so, you know, we’ll be happy to provide you with that information, because I believe very strongly in transparency.” (link)

But it seems that this isn’t quite true:

Actually, though, as the Republican National Committee noted in a release, he hasn’t. He has released his earmarks for last year, but has refused to do the same for his first two years in the Senate.

The Washington Post, just last week: “Since last year, he has publicly released the letters he submits to the Appropriations Committee seeking support for the spending items, but has not released those submitted to the committee in 2005 and 2006.” (link)

Although Obama is far from alone, a few in Congress and less in the Senate have taken none.

Taxpayers for Common Sense has comprised a list of the amount of earmarks each member of Congress accumulated in this year’s spending bills. Obscene doesn’t even begin to describe the waste. GOP Congressmen Bill Young (FL-10) and Jerry Lewis (CA-41) were the worst offenders in the House with earmarks in excess of $100 million! The Senate was even more repulsive with four GOP Senators breaking the $100 million mark and going as high as almost $400 million! Those four Senators were Ted Stevens (AK), Thad Cochran (MS), Kit Bond (MO), Richard Shelby (AL). (link)

The following legislators requested zero earmarks:

House

• John Boehner (R-OH-8)
• Paul Broun (R-GA-10)
• Eric Cantor (R-VA-7)
• Jeff Flake (R-AZ-6)
• Vito Fossella (R-NY-13)
• Jeb Hensarling (R-TX-5)
• John Kline (R-MN-2)
• John Shadegg (R-AZ-3)
• Lee Terry (R-NE-2)

Senate

• Tom Coburn (R-OK)
• Jim DeMint (R-SC)
• Russ Feingold (D-WI)
• John McCain (R-AZ)
• Claire McCaskill (D-MO)