Obama Releases Earmark Requests, Challenges Hillary To Do The Same

Barack Obama has released all of his earmark requests from 2005 and 2006 (his 2007 earmarks have already been released). You can see the earmarks here.

His campaign also took the opportunity to tweak his opponent for not doing the same:

"Bringing real change requires changing the way we do business in Washington," said Obama for America Communications Director Robert Gibbs. "If Senator Clinton will not agree to join Senator Obama in releasing her earmark requests, voters should ask why she doesn't believe they have the right to know she wants to spend their tax dollars."

Comments

[flyguy14222]

Well now that the facts are out....big damn deal: Obama spent 311m and Hillary 342m. Here in NY we are quite happy with that amount and really don't care what Obama spent in IL, none of my business.

[anghiari]

Flyguy....it is so easy to just tell the truth...big damn deal...you say...it sure is....this isn't about life and death, only about fooling the people she's lied to...but it is important. None of who's business? the people who elected her?, you don't speak for everyone in NY...you sound like Hillary...get theirvotes, then tell them they're too stupid to understand the complexities of politics and in particular my IRS records.

[ltfcrazy]

My parents live in New York. They aren't real happy with senator Clinton's work. My father has been a Republican since the doctor slapped his ass. He said, and I quote, "I think McCain can beat her, but I don't think he can beat Osama." Yes he said Osama. The man watches O'Reilly every night and is a lovely racist ( oxymoron is not lost on me , but he IS my father).
All that and he doesn't think McCain can win against OBAMA. If you want the white, racist, Republican opinion, There It Is!

[treadway123]

Man, and they say this man has no intelligence,not experience,no leadership skills, and has not accomplished nothing. This really opens my eyes. He has funded teens and children programs, supported military equipment and technology, involved in bettering our food supplies and much more. flyguy your stupid! What those Universities and companys and agulculture developes benefits every one in the United States! The programs this man has supported is an indication on what direction, technology,agulcullture,food and Military advancements that he would take the United States in! There is no waste here! Thank you, John Mccain for insisting Obama release his Ear Marks. He used the money wisely, and for technical advancements for his state and the United States. YES, THIS MAN KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING, AND KNOWS WHAT NEED TO BE ACCOMPLISHED AND WHO TO TURN TO , TO GET THINGS DONE! ONCE AGAIN, JOHN MCCAIN THANK YOU FOR MAKEING ME REALIZE THERE IS SO MUCH MORE TO SENATOR OBAMA. I HOPE EVERYON READS HIS EAR MARKSs!

[DownwithFearMongers]

I'm tired of the secretive goverment of Bush and Cheney and I sure dont want another 8 years of secrets from Bill and Hillary

[docpooh]

You know, the selective blindness and contentiousness on the part of some Hillary supporters (and perhaps some fellow Obamabots on some issues) would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic. The Hillary folks lie and say that her tax returns have been released (maybe some believe this is true), but for the ones who know it isn’t true, to say that it doesn’t matter is sheer madness! I refuse to believe that if the situation were reversed and she’d released this info and Obama hadn’t they would be as generous about it. In fact, I think Obama would now be out of the race, because Hillary would make it a key point against him. I'm imagining the commercials painting him as having secrets too dirty to reveal, whereas she is shown as forthright and transparent. And you know what? She’d be RIGHT to do so. Any candidate who hesitates to release such info (regardless of whether they’re legally bound to) looks suspicious, rightly or wrongly. And make no mistake, Hillary is too smart and too calculating to give Obama such an issue against her. According to a NYT (?) article posted here last week (sorry, don’t have the link, but someone should remember it) Hillary hounded/practically harassed (MY terms) her opponent in the NY Senate race for not having released his returns when she had done so. In fact, according to the article, one of her surrogates went to one of this guy’s rallies wearing an Uncle Sam suit to press the point. So, she knows just what can be made of this issue, yet she is still hesitant to release the tax info any time soon. Lucky for her, Obama isn’t pressing as hard as she would have; and the press doesn’t want to bother her about it. I think she really was expecting to be the nominee by now so that we'd be stuck with her when she releases the info. And it would have worked but for spoiler Obama! My guess is that Hillary’s closet may not be too much worse than McCain’s (he’s hesitating to release info too, no?) and that’s what she thought would be her saving grace. I mean she is not stupid. She knows that when/if she’s forced to release the info it will make her/Bill look bad, but maybe no worse than McCain. And it might have worked!

[jayinma]

Just a general response-- as I read through these posts (regarding this and other stories), I am wondering about the state of progressive politics in America. Are we really left to vitriolic name-calling and division? Admittedly, this is my first trip through the "blogo-sphere," but I've found most (not all) of the responses very disconcerting-- flawed logic, bizarre claims, and, yes, very poor writing. Can we raise our standards here? I came to the HuPo with the intent of feeling the pulse of the nation. If this is it, we are in desperate need of a defibrillator.

[DoAsISay]

Try "hillary for president". The ladies there are really nice. No name calling at all. Some people do shout thought (by typing with CAPS, you know), just like they do here, but atleast you don't actually have to listen, just read. Enjoy!

[DoAsISay]

Oops, I spelt 'though' wrong. You did point out that we write poorly. Sorry.

And yes, the really funny people are here around midnight. Unfortunately, with HuffPo's really slow "previewing", most people have to hop threads to find one where our post shows up in less than an hour. So you may have some trouble finding these people.

[JulieSA]

"One of Obama's Earmarks Went to Hospital That Employs Michelle Obama

Dan Riehl notes, via Amanda Carpenter, that in the list of earmarks he requested, $1 Million was requested for the construction of a new hospital pavilion at the University Of Chicago. The request was put in in 2006.

You know who works for the University of Chicago Hospital?

Michelle Obama. She's vice president of community affairs.

As Byron noted, "In 2006, the Chicago Tribune reported that Mrs. Obama’s compensation at the University of Chicago Hospital, where she is a vice president for community affairs, jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office."

Looks like that raise was worth it. "

http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGRiMWFhNWY4MTgzMjI3NjEzNGQwMWFiMTlhYmRhN2Y=

[Shaddup]

First, you're getting your article from a republican magazine (the one Cristol edited for--yech!), second, have you ever lived in Chicago? U of C Hospital does damn good work for not a lot of money when compared to a lot of others. I've been hospitalized there, and to not give these people money because some repuss arsehole said so would just be wrong. Check your facts.

[youngliberal]

Check your logic:

You said request put in in 2006, but she got her raise in 2005. Are you trying to say that she got her raise as a result of the earmark, or are you saying that because she got a raise, obama got them on an earmark?

Quite frankly, the first possibility doesn't make sense as I pointed out, and the second one just seems weird and isn't even really all that bad considering its a good hospital and... well.. a hospital.

Please, let me know... but take your time, I'm sure theres another right-wing news source you can find for us..

[Ramirez]

The point is that her corporate value went up dramatically when her husband was elected to the Senate. It's a Chicago thing, I think.

[treadway123]

Quite Frankly her compensation came a year before they were awarded this ear mark! get your facts straight. also the Hospital is an will upon your request send out statements to what the ear mark money was used for.. She was vice Presidesnt silly, not president! also she has not only a President to answer to, but the hopital board had to ok the spending of the money. You really should know what your talking about befor you try to say some on embesseled money or Benifit in un lawful ways julieSa. now where did you say I could go to and read Hillary Clintons Ear Marks?

[flyguy14222]

No GBecker -Oh enlightened one. It is the foundation, the IRS and an accounting firm that I won't name on here. You really are a person of few words, should try and expand that vocab.

[flyguy14222]

To GBecker: Dude we can hash over the issue, even use foul language when doing so, but to start using that language to describe one another...why bother going further?

[GBecker]

Your reading comprehension skills are a bit lacking for an educator. You posted that the Wright story had hit the NYT and I asked you for your link as there has been no mention of Wright in the NYT since March 5. Why are you dodging my question?

[kingfishstew]

I'm pretty sure the first to disclose Hillary Clinton's finanial records, white-house papers, ect will be the Republican Party. In fact, I'm sure George Bush has already had his cronies in black ops gather every ounce of dirt possible on both candidates, and is just waiting to drop the appropriate file in McCain's hand once the nomination is decided.

The only question really, is which wire taps an spy-cameras proved more revealing.

[flyguy14222]

Cowman...who is in a corner? How many years of public financials can you find on Obama?

[escapee]

Okay, I read all his earmarks (that's the topic, right?) and it looks like McCain thinks spending money on law enforcement, infrastructure, at-risk youth programs, university improvements, agricultural studies and domestic violence prevention is a waste of tax dollars. But paying France to build our military tanker aircraft makes perfect sense to him! What a lunatic!

[Shannon2008]

I totally agree.

[flyguy14222]

Just a heads up...the Rev Wright story has hit the NYT! Took long enough.....shouldn't be long now........

[elainebarili]

they wont post anything reguarding the Rev. Jeremiah Wright so far. I have been trying.

[Shannon2008]

When people are losing their lives in Iraq and Afganistan, losing their homes across America, and pay $4.00 a gallon at the pump, stories like this are pretty irrelevant. Only someone like Sean Hannity who doesn't have children fighting in Iraq and Afganistan, who could afford to pay cash for his home, and could fly his private jet back and forth across the country, would actually think that anyone would care about the Rev Wright story. The story has a life of a couple of days at best. In that short period of time something such as 100 point fall on Wall Street, a new jobs report, a new housing report, or a story about some suicide bomber will take over the headlines. This tactic of throwing out distractions such as a fringe issue, i.e. gay marriage or gays in the military, or some smear such as the Kerry swiftboat ads, probably won't have the same power they had the last election because it's hard to be distracted from the headlines about the war and the billions of dollars being spent per month, or from the bills that piling up as people live off credit.

This story about earmarks probably won't have as much bite in the general because the question will be were are the billions of dollars that we're sending to Iraq going. Where's the oversight for those dollars? How long can we continue to fund this war?

[flyguy14222]

This is for winterwhateverhisnameis: Bill Clinton did not earn 700k you bonehead. The foundation rec'd stock in 04 and sold in 06. Every penny stays in the foundation and he does not receive a penny. Geez, at least attempt to look up the facts! What do you work for Keith Olbermann?

[GBecker]

Link please?

[flyguy14222]

Do a bit of legwork...I did. This is not your freshman year in college.

[rojo7449]

Obama is pretty safe in doing this from his side. By his own admission, he's been too busy running for President to do his job in the Senate the past 2 years. Of course Clinton is going to have more, but will she have more, less, or about average with all the other 99 US Senators? The Obama camp is never a surprise, and never even-handed. Shall we all just say it now, "he's using the kitchen sink strategy".

[MRb1000]

You are being funny or you are just stupid. She need to release something. What dose Hillary have to hide!!!! Kitchen sink strategy. LOL Well when you are dealing with the Clintons try waste water treatment plant. LOL

[Roshi98]

There was a report three weeks ago showing in detail each senator's earmarks. Hillary ranked in the top ten. Before you jump all over this number, note a couple of points.

First, earmarks have been a long-standing, Constitutional means employed by Congressional representatives for over 150 years to attach specific budget requests to larger bills. Sometimes these are pork projects, but often they are used to fund many worthy projects. It is a shame that the term "earmark" has been unjustly scapegoated in the way that it has, though something needs to be done to ensure that earmarks are utilized for the overall public good.

Second, Hillary has used her earmarks overwhelmingly for education, health care, and infrastructure. Representing primarily New York to the North and West of Albany, Hillary's earmarks have modernized schools in predominantly struggling rural and manufacturing towns/cities, bringing high-speed internet access, paying for computer labs, and expanding after-school and pre-school programs. Health care has been helped through grants and monies for clinic and small hospital expansion, medical record centalization, and greater subsidies for lower income families and children. Hillary has also emphasized funding better, expanded health care services through the VA hospital system.

Finally, Obama has brought little to his constituency. While he has focused on introducing bills (most likely to pad his presidential candidate resume) Hillary has continued to represent the citizens of upstate NY by bringing in much needed money to a greatly neglected region of the state. I know it's become cliche to speak of her as a "fighter", but in the case of her work in the Senate on behalf of upstate NY, it's absolutely true. This is why she won 60% of the Republican vote in 2006 in a region that has been famously conservative since the 1968 convention.

[cittykat2]

Can you explain why I believe upstate New York lost 30,000 jobs since she has been a senator. Please explain. This may have been a Nafta issue, was it?

[nellie]

Open government. Not bad. Maybe it will give Obama a chance to talk about the work he did with police in Illinois to tape confessions—open government.

[flyguy14222]

Don't forget Obama and Yucca Mtn.

[efranklin]

What does Yucca Mountain have to do with the mandatory recording policy for police interrogations that Obama helped introduce in Illinois?

[AnninCA]

I think first we need to know about how those Rezko buddies ended up on hospital boards when he was in charge of the health committee in Illinois.

Then he'll have room to talk.

While we're at it, I'd like some disclosure on Michelle's job. Sounds pretty shaky.

[nellie]

You're the one who sounds shaky.

[Jazz42]

I agree.
AnninCA is shaky most of the time. She is a pid troll.