McCain Myth Buster: John McCain, Earmarks, and Israel

John McCain says he is against earmarks and has promised that as president he would "veto every bill with earmarks" that came across his desk. [CQ, 4/15/08]. He also claims to have "been a very strong proponent to the State of Israel." [Haaretz.com, 2/3/2008]

But John McCain has a problem. Aid to Israel is an earmark. As reported by thinkprogress.org, "congressional directives specifying spending amounts that are the same as shown in the Administration's illustrative listing for country distributions also are regarded as earmarks. Annual earmarks for economic and military aid to Israel and Egypt are examples of such directives." [http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/16/mccain-aid-israel/]

Sounds like on earmarks McCain isn't talking so straight.

Aid to Israel Comes in the Form of Earmarks. According to the blog ThinkProgress, "In a conference call with reporters yesterday, McCain economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin said that McCain's plan to eliminate earmarks uses the Congressional Research Service's (CRS) definition of the term. According to an analysis by Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Scott Lilly ( http://www.americanprogress.org/experts/LillyScott.html ), that CRS report identifies $52 billion per year which qualifies as earmark spending. The problem is that the CRS -- the group Holtz-Eakin cited as the basis for McCain's earmark elimination plan -- says that U.S. aid to Israel is considered an earmark ( http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/m012606.pdf#page=19 )…" [thinkprogress.org, 4/16/08]

After casting himself as a "Maverick" in 2000, the new John McCain is walking in lockstep with President Bush, pandering to the right wing of the Republican Party, and embracing the ideology he once denounced. On the campaign trail McCain has callously abandoned many of his previously held positions, even contradicted himself, in a blatant attempt to remake himself into a candidate Republicans can accept in 2008. So just who is the real John McCain? The Democratic National Committee will present a daily fact aimed at exposing the man behind the myth.