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McCain on the defensive about pet projects
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If some projects are still deserving of funds, it is hard to see how McCain would cut spending as much as he says he would. It is even harder to see how he would eliminate the deficit, as he has pledged to do.
McCain promises to shave at least $35 billion annually from the federal budget by eliminating earmarks. Tough enough, considering Congress spent only around $15 billion on earmarks last year. McCain adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin, former head of the Congressional Budget Office, says McCain wants deeper cuts to punish lawmakers for past earmarks.
But if McCain cuts spending that deeply, how can any worthy project still get money? And if projects do get money, how can McCain cut spending by that much?
"I can't get the numbers to add up," said Brian Riedl, budget analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington. "You either eliminate the projects and their funding, or you don't."
The discrepancy only adds to criticism that McCain is making budget promises he can't keep.
Line-item veto gone, crusade continues
The line-item veto has come and gone, passed in 1996 by the Republican-controlled Congress but struck down in 1998 by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.
But McCain's crusade against wasteful spending has endured, boosting his profile among independent voters likely to play a crucial role in November as well as among fiscal conservatives in both parties.
"Not only is spending an issue near and dear to Republican hearts, wasteful spending is also near and dear to independents," said Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio. "It is probably one of the reasons McCain has some currency with independents, aside from portraying himself as a maverick and speaking his mind. It's a good well to mine."
McCain's standing with independents is especially important given the headwinds he and other Republicans are facing.
Polls show President Bush is deeply unpopular, and the vast majority of people believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. Only 17 percent think things are on the right track, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll, the lowest reading since the survey began in 2003.
So the less McCain is identified with free-spending congressional Republicans, the better. He campaigns like he knows it, blaming his own party's spending for the recent scandal surrounding lobbyist Jack Abramoff and for election losses that cost Republicans control of Congress. The earmarking system contributed to the convictions of some of his former colleagues, McCain says.
"It has bred corruption," McCain told Florida newspaper editors this month. "And I don't say that word lightly — we have former members of Congress now residing in federal prison."
Audiences nod in agreement when McCain goes on the attack.
"We didn't lose the 2006 election because of the war in Iraq; we lost it because we in the Republican Party came to Washington to change government, and government changed us," McCain says often on the campaign trail.
And yet he can't go to any place that got an earmark without being held to account.
"By that standard, McCain couldn't touch down in any city in America," longtime aide Mark Salter said. "I'm serious, everybody has gotten an earmark."
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