Setting The Record: Palin's Earmarks - she wanted that bridge until the end and kept the money (CBS)

Setting The Record: Palin's Earmarks
CBS Evening News: Reality Checking The Alaska Governor's "Bridge To Nowhere" Claims

Comments Comments3

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2008

(CBS) Its one of those claims that gets so much applause.

"I told Congress 'thanks but no thanks,' to that bridge to nowhere," Palin has said over and over on the campaign trail, CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports.

Gov. Sarah Palin just won't let it go. But the truth is the governor never rebuffed Congress. Here are the facts.

After a year of supporting the proposed bridge, near Ketchikan, Gov. Palin pulled state funds from the project, which killed the bridge for good, but she never said "no thanks" to the Federal funds promised by Congress -- $233 million.

In fact, here's the list of how Palin is spending those federal tax dollars - on other highway projects around Alaska. As a candidate for governor, she defended every dollar for roads and bridges the state could wrangle from Washington, according to the Congressional Record and the Alaska Department of Transportation.

"I'm not going to stand in the way of progress that our Congressional delegation in the position of strength that they have right now, they are making those efforts for the state of Alaska," Palin said.

Now however, Palin is on a Republican ticket that's promising to reform all earmark spending - all of those federal grants aimed at specific local projects.

And McCain's credibility here is excellent - he is not on record ever landing an earmark.

"My friends I have never asked for received an earmark for my state of Arizona," McCain said.

Governor Palin's record on earmarks is mixed. Compared to the previous Governor, Palin's earmarks are down 44 percent, but stills totals more than $450 million over two years.

By repeating the claim she said no thanks to the bridge, the implication is that she confronted a spendthrift Congress recklessly wasting money.

The record shows she wanted that bridge until the end and kept the money.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/09/eveningnews/main4433129.shtml

Yet she would like you to believe that your taxes aren't going to go up, please. Republicans claim that they want to streamline the government, and get rid of wasteful spending, yet they just continue to support more earmarks and waste more and more tax payer dollars on "bridges to nowhere." Yet they attack Obama's plan for universal health care as being a massive taxpayer program. Where is the hypocrisy.

This is much better reporting than just equalizing both sides and letting the reader figure it out.