Earmark Vote in Washington, D.C.

State and Local Government |
By David Stokes | Read Time 1 minute

Right now on KMOX, Mark Reardon is commenting — to put it mildly — about the vote today in the capital to include an enormous number of earmarks in the current omnibus spending bill. One Missouri senator voted with the appropriators, and one voted against them, along with Sen. McCain. It breaks my Republican heart to find out which was which, but Sen. McCaskill deserves a lot of credit for her stance on earmarks and pork. (Which are not always the same thing.)  

But, since I just praised Ms. McCaskill, I can call her out for her nonsensical statement in an interview that Reardon just played. She ripped President Bush (deservedly so) for building up such a large deficit, and then praised President Obama for his commitment to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term, while just ignoring the fact that Obama’s proposed budget has quadrupled (at least tripled) the projected deficit for next year. Mr. Reardon is a lot of fun to listen to right now. …

About the Author

David Stokes is a St. Louis native and a graduate of Saint Louis University High School and Fairfield (Conn.) University. He spent six years as a political aide at the St. Louis County Council before joining the Show-Me Institute in 2007. Stokes was a policy analyst at the Show-Me Institute from 2007 to 2016. From 2016 through 2020 he was Executive Director of Great Rivers Habitat Alliance, where he led efforts to oppose harmful floodplain developments done with abusive tax subsidies. Stokes rejoined the Institute in early 2021 as the Director of Municipal Policy. He is a past president of the University City Library Board. He served on the St. Louis County 2010 Council Redistricting Commission and was the 2012 representative to the Electoral College from Missouri’s First Congressional District. He lives in University City with his wife and their three children.

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