Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I don't disagree with Senator McCain when he talks about the earmark process.
When you have to earmark human and monetary resources for such a long time, it starts to hinder your other activities.
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.
If we can get back to where I can earmark money to bring it home to Illinois... to make us a stronger economy, I'm going to continue to do it.
Many of the earmark request forms are actually filled out by lobbyists and then just turned in by the member's staff to the appropriations committee.
The earmark favor factory needs to be boarded up and demolished, not turned over to new management that may or may not have a better eye for earmarks with 'merit.'
We'd all like to increase pleasure and minimize pain, but the truth is, suffering, even collective suffering that we're going through, is often the earmark that some real change is happening.
Earmarks are almost always inserted by a member of Congress without any notice to other members, and without a chance for Congress as a whole to debate a particular earmark as they relate to national priorities.
Earmarks have become a symbol of a Congress that has broken faith with the people. This earmark ban shows the American people we are listening and we are dead serious about ending business as usual in Washington.
There's a lot of surplus rage from the '60s that was never really worked through publicly. I think a lot of that rage still exists, and I think you see that when John McCain runs a commercial that beats up on Hillary Clinton's earmark for a Woodstock museum.
Maybe it's my age that makes me very conscious of loose threads, but I don't think that's an earmark of a fine product. And whenever I have a deep-seated feeling like that, I convey it to the person who made it. Sometimes they curse me, and sometimes they thank me.
House and Senate Republicans are now united in adopting earmark bans. We hope President Obama will follow through on his support for an earmark ban by pressing Democratic leaders to join House and Senate Republicans in taking this critical step to restore public trust.
When I was first elected to the House in 2006, it was important to me to send a clear message to the people of NY-20: I wanted to be a representative for the people and shed some light on their government, so I became the first member of Congress to post my schedule, my financial disclosures and my earmark requests all online.
