earmarks he did not withdraw after taking the no earmark pledge.t ago was part of his explanation why not. here's the rest. >> and regardless of whether members had some input in the bill much earlier in the year when the bills could have been moved to the floor by by bill by bill is completely and totally inappropriate to wrap all of this up in into a 2,000-page bill and try to pass it the week before christmas. >> now other republicans certainly have earmarks in the bill, some are expected to vote for it, democrat as well, harry reid says he expects the bill to pass with their support. he's not opposed to earmarks, he's made that clear and he's got plenty, 15 pages of projects, according to taxpayers for common sense. military spending, food banks, highway projects, biometric sensor research, high-speed rails. look, all of this might be worthy stuff, but that's in the eye of the beholder. the fact is, it's in the face of a sea of red ink. we talked about it earlier with paul begala and erick erickson. paul, representative obey says the omnibus bi

dollars in earmarks. he said that november 13th, this year after the election. does the president's word mean anything any more? >> well, it certainly is part of the question. another thing he said during the campaign was all these negotiations on these legislation, including obamacare, was gonna be on c-span. this bill is written by a handful of powerful senators, who are appropriators. without the input of any of the rest of us. none of the authorization that of that comes from the various committees, jammed into as you mentioned whatever it is, 2,000 page -- 1,924 page bill. then presented to us. not only violated all his other pledges but he has refused to tell the democrats to have some transparency and -- about this -- it is real an an egregious process. >> sean: is this bill going to pass, senator? >> right now i would say that it may, because we have five or six republican senators who may vote for it and a bunch of department dats obviously. if the american people speak up. if our tea partiers ge

, congress added at least 6,600 earmarks worth $8 billion. many of the projects already get millions from the regular federal budget. these are extra sweeters in doled out by members usually without competitive bidding. there's money for the cold fuel alliance. research on cool season legumes. maples, small fruit, and peanuts, management of beavers, blackbirds, potato tests, and noshes weeds. oyster safety, virus-free wine grapes, and cran berry and blueberry disease. >> everybody who took a pledge and said we're not doing earmarks going forward, they didn't mean this year. they meant for next year. >> reporter: in other words, congress was for earmarks before they were against them. it's gotten so confusing senator mcconnell said he opens the whole spending bill, his own earmarks included. >> i'm going to vote against things that would arguably benefit my state. >> reporter: one earmark comes from five democrats, spending $10 million of your tax dollars to honor the memory of their controversial colleague john murtha. >> he was the king of e

as snow is on the way... >> reporter: so is this year's giant blizzard of earmarks. for all the republican scorn over earmarks their finger prints are all over the ones in the spending bill. >> on the issue of congressional earmarks, as the leader of my party in the senate, i have to lead first by example. >> reporter: mcconnell's earmarks of $650,000 tax dollars to advanced genetic technologies, $1 million for a blood center building, $4 million for marijuana eradication. democrats are right in there with billions of dollars worth of their own earmarks, despite their supposed disdain for them. >> i'm somebody who is big on eliminating earmarks in congress. >> reporter: all told, congress added at least 6,600 ear marks worth $8 billion. many of the projects already get millions from the regular federal budget. these are extra sweeters in doled out by members usually without competitive bidding. there's money for the cold fuel alliance. research on cool season legumes. mailles, small fruit, and peanuts, management of beavers, blackbirds, potato, betsings, oyster safet

more than 6,000 earmarks, some $8 billion in earmarks.ll this about earmark reform. >> this is the last gasp of earmarks, probably. the big question is john boehner had harsh words, does that mean the republicans in the house will vote against this? that's an important test. the other thing is i think that democrats in the senate who are up for reelection in 2012. there are a lot. 23 democrats, you heard from claire mccasscal, facing a tough race in missouri. i think that democrats who are worried about 2012 will be in a position to vote no on this. >> fred? >> not to stop it necessarily. >> if that happens, since 23 of them are up, when you add it to the republicans, it will lose. republicans will defeat it by a filibuster. even though some have earmarks in there. the best advice so far is what john boehner said for president obama. one of the biggest embarrassments early in the first term, his only term, was when he didn't veto the omnibus spending bill after campaigning against the earmarks. >> which he regrets. >> indeed. president ob

a spending bill turns into a christmas tree with $8 billion worth of earmarks. wounded warriors speak out about afghanistan. >> are we going to let it be in vain, just pick up and leave? >> couric: and what if every face in a crowd looked exactly the same? it does for victims of face blindness. captioning sponsored by cbs from cbs news world headquarters in new york, this is the "cbs evening news" with katie couric. >> couric: good evening, everyone. it's a frightening video that's gone viral and you can only imagine the terror members of that school board in panama city, florida, was feeling when a gunman threatened them, aimed at them, and then opened fire. tonight, we know more about that gunman and what drove him to do this. 56-year-old clay duke, an ex-con was apparently under economic pressure and angry that his wife, a teacher, had been fired. mark strassmann is in panama city tonight. mark, the idea of pulling a weapon on the school board didn't just come to duke yesterday. >> reporter: no, it didn't, katie. in fact police know clay duke had planned the

in there, 6,500 earmarks. a list of the top earmarkers in this bill. the top two are republicans. senator cochran from minnesota, ann wicker. senator inoue is next. senator feinstein from california. next is senator murray from washington. those are the top five. then senator reid is numbersen. the senate majority leader. senator mcconnell, minority leader is 48 at $112 million. what about this? start there. the panel, chris stirewalt, fox news digital editor. juan williams, fox news contributor. and charles krauthammer, syndicated columnist. >> conclusion of the earmarks was done by democrats inside in what the republicans decry as behind closed doors secretive process. they were included to get them to support the bill. these were preexisting earmarks. they had been included. some think it was inducement or one described as blackmail. receipt so say it's loaded with your earmarks so how can you oppose it. >> that is what has happened>>. >> that's precisely what happened. but the republicans said we're opposed to the bill, because we kicked the earmark habit and not doing it. >>

there is earmark rage. some republican senators are responding to that rage by withdrawing their vote for this bill, even though their own earmarks are contained in it. roger wicker from mississippi, he's got 223 earmark necessary this bill, worth $400 million. he's not going to vote for it. mitch mcconnell, we have john cornyn, republican of texas, he's got $50 million both of earmarks in it, he's going to vote against it, john thune of south dakota, $38 million worth in there, he will vote against it. so you've got a rising tide of republican senators saying we don't want this, we're not going to vote for it. bill: if they truly wanted to put their money where their mouth is they would pull the earmarks out of it, would they not? >> well, that's a technical thing, whether they pull it in or pull it out, that's irrelevant, largely. the point is they will vote against it. they will vote against the bill, which contains earmarks they put in. now, is this -- if this bill goes down to defeat, if it were pushed

earmarks. lawmakers say all the tile it, no more earmarks.ll, maybe they're going to turn over a new leaf come 2011. coming up, we are naming names. jessica yellson live with me from washington. she is next to drill down on that. >>> also, the man who rushed in to save a school board from a hostage-taker is finally telling his side of the story. the guy everyone is hailing as a hero. we'll hear from him in his own words. ♪ oh, my gosh. oh, my gosh. ♪ [ male announcer ] you know her. we know diamonds. together we'll make her holiday. that's why only zales is the diamond store. where you can get up to $1,000 off now through sunday. >>> want to take you back to the capitol. want to give you a look at the floor of the u.s. senate. waiting to see if jim demint makes good on the threat to tie this place in knots. they are -- just as they are trying to plow through this mound of year-end chores, the south carolina republican has threatened to force a full reading of a 1,900-page spending bill. that could take two days. the clock very much so ticking

congress' power to earmark hpdz balance the executive branch power but earmarks have become synonymous with waste and excess. there are $8.3 billion in earmarks added on to the spending bill. $236 million worth belongs to the man holding up the constitution and he proudly disclosed and defended them all. reid earmarked your tax dollars for nobsuous weeds, darey and goat research. you name it, it's in there. but today reid attacked colleagues who voted to ban earmarks yet stuffed a bunch of them into the spending bill. >> if you went to "h" in the dictionary and found hypocrite, under that would be people who ask for earmarks but vote against them. >> reporter: 28 senators voted for an earmark ban that didn't pass but have megaearmarks of their own. republican robert wicker has his name on about $450 million worth including shrimp aqua culture and wood utilization. democrat mark warner earmarked $66 million for marine accult uhorticultural crops and more. if anyone deserves props in this whole controversy tmight be the 11 senators who voted to ban earmarks and didn't put any in the curr

of congress committed to the earmarks before the election.ase you're wondering, there's nothing to stop them from stripping the earmarks out of the spending bills, nothing except themselves. sharyl attkisson, cbs news, capitol hill. >>> later on "the early show" a live report from north carolina on the deadly cold weather gripping the southeast and when it will warm up. important safety news about drop-side cribs that every parent should know. and actor paul rudd from "how do you know" stops by the studio. all that and more coming up on "the early show." that's the cbs news for this thursday. i'm terrell brown. take care, everybody. i'm terrell brown. take care, everybody. we'll see you tomorrow! -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

of earmarks. i want to send out a shout-out and applause and thanks to mitch mcconnell and leadership for drawing a bright line on the congress saying stop the spending. we don't need to do this now. the nation is tying to heal itself economically. let's keep these bush tax cuts in place. let's not see a massive inkeys in taxes on the american people, coupled with additional spending they can't afford in 2011. i applaud the senate leadership for drawing a bright line and standing firm. now we look to the house, on the tax bill to make sure that gets passed so there is not a massive tax increase on the american people. >> sean: do you think this is because in the senate that all the republicans then held firm? in other words the house passed the they will -- resolution. they will take this up in the next congress. you think democrats caved in on the earmarks? did they cave on pressure from the public or they didn't have the votes? >> i think it is a combination of all three. the reality is the 2010

earmarks, under the current administration, that is, under pelosi, we have literally cut those earmarks in half from what they were before, number one. number two, i don't know about what other members do, but i do know one thing, my earmarks are less than $30 million. that s. i'll talking about total amount. some of the other side on the senate side, look who has the largest amount of earmarks on the other side and it's the other party. again, i'm not saying this is right or wrong, all i'm saying is we have to maj our own merits, i ask folks, i ask the nonprofits, the local government, i ask the sheriffings policemen, firefight e. what they want. jenna: i apologize for interrupting, we only have 30 seconds. if we don't cut earmarks, how do we ever cut government spend something. >> earmarks make half of 1 percent of the whole federal government. there are other ways. and as a blue dog, i'm -- a plu dog i'm looking for other ways to cut government spending but earmarks make up half of 1 percent, that's a -- symbol that is not -- we need to look at other ways of spending. jenna: thank yo

after earmark from the both of you. i mean, millions of dollars in earmarks from the two of you and from other senators. how do you have any credibility on this? why do you have earmarks in here? >> because we're going to vote against the bill. this is the wrong way to do business. >> reporter: were you wrong when you put these earmarks in before? >> karl, this is not just about earmarks. earmarks are a symptom of wasteful washington spending that the american people have said they want reformed. >> reporter: is that an acknowledgement that it was wrong to put the earmarks in the first place? i guess that's my question. >> you asked the question about five times. and i tried to answer it to the best of my ability. >> reporter: jonathan karl, abc news, capitol hill. >>> some more wintry weather is battering parts of the south this morning and wreaking havoc on roads where salt spreaders are pretty hard to come by. an ice storm is now glazing over tennessee and kentucky. and another round of snow is in store for the upper

the earmarks are problem. we should eliminate them if we can. but by not doing budget and cramming it through, it gives the committee chairman discretion to raise level of discretionary funding on year-by-year basis. what it does, talk about the spending levels going forward, it sets a new and higher baseline. so you're talking about $15 billion or $20 million higher next year than this year, which is double what we're talking about in earmarks. >> bret: we do talk about earmarks a lot because it's the crazy projects, a.b., but $1 billion in here for healthcare law implementation. which would make it tougher for republicans in congress to unravel the funding for next year if it's funded through the year. >> i'm not a shutdown proponent as steve is, but i also agree for the democrats at this point to try to pass omnibus bill, even if it has to further their goal to fund healthcare is a stretch. house passed continuing resolution. we have run out of time. i know appropriators like to appropriate and that's their responsibility. they should have go

earmarks were democrat earmarks. at any rate, there's so much pork in that bill. during the hearing, every democrat said we have got to raise the taxes on the rich to pay these bills. they are not paying the bills. they are spending more money. like i said, we have a spending problem, not in income problem. host: from "roll-call" this morning -- "roll callle is in article this morning. coleen, go ahead. caller: this lame duck session makes me sick. the republicans taking the president hostage to make him agree to a plan of more benefits for the wealthy people and less taxes -- they should be paying 39% like they did under clinton, even though the republicans had control of the senate and house since about 1992. this country has just gone downhill in the last 20 years. all we talk about our republicans and democrats. what about the people? the people that have gotten so wealthy over the last 10 years or 20 years. we have far more millionaires than we used to have -- even in the last 10 years. we have far more poor peo

what happened was, that earmarks got -- earmarks were to fix a bridge or to put in a railway station. they got mixed up with the sorts of things that we really hate about earmarks which are -- john king's got a big contributor in, oh, let's say, pennsylvania, and we want the pentagon to buy something you make -- that's a different deal. >> $100,000 for the philadelphia hispanic chamber of commerce. i'm sure it's a worthy goal. arlen specter there. $30 million for the university of alabama at tuscaloosa for interdisciplinary -- we could go on and on. >> where do you think the research grants come from? it's all federal money. >> then why isn't the new republican leadership saying, american people, earmarks are good? otherwise, the president gets all the authority. so we're going to keep loading these bills up with earmarks. >> i don't think they said either one of those things. >> they made a pledge, the republican, not to do it. >> and you talked about senators -- >> as we talked about last night, senator mitch mcconnell, who did it -- it was not easy for him to do because he was a we

>> karl, this is not just about earmarks. we voted if for an earmark moratorium. we will abide by that, and we will reject any earmarks requested by us or anyone else, because that's what the american people told us they want. >> thank you, guys. thank you very much. >> is that an acknowledgement that it was wrong to put the earmarks in in the first place. that's my question. >> you've asked the question about five times and i tried to answer it to the best of my ability. thank you. >> thank you! what do you suppose senator cornyn and senator thune said to each other in the hallway once they managed to escape their own press conference there? the bottom line here, though, is in order to obstruct and delay and kill a bill that democrats are trying to pass, these republican senators are now pledging to vote against it, even though they helped write it. they're claiming it is full of awful, awful stuff that they put in it. >> we will reject any earmarks requested by us. >> "requested by us." how's that for a bumper sticker? republicans are now attempting to prevent t

who just voted on a moratorium for earmarks ten minutes ago. did he pull his earmarks out? no. did any of the republicans that voted for a moratorium on earmarks did they pull their earmarks out before this bill came to the floor? we could have eliminated a few pages. so, you know, i just don't think the righteous indignation works. >> still the turn of events a major victory for earmark opponents like john mccain and mark kirk. >> as the most junior member for those who are not understanding what just happened did we just win? it seems that change has come to the senate tonight with the death of this $1.1 trillion plan. >> this may be a moment in the history in the recent history of the united states senate, because for the first time, since i've been here, we stood up and said, enough. stop. >> the senate faces a midnight saturday deadline to fund the government when a stop-gap funding measure will expire. they have to find a way to fund the operation of the united states government. >>> president obama says the u.s. is making, quote, significant progress in its goal of defea

president obama also said he was against earmarks. >> our earmark system that's called pork barrel spendingwashington is fraught with abuse. it badly needs reform. >> i pledge to not slash earmarks by more than half when i'm president of the united states of america. i'm not going to tell you what i'm going to spend but tell you how i'm going to save. >> we'll go through the entire federal budget page by page and line by line, we'll eliminate programs that don't work. >> senator mccain talks a lot about earmarks. there's no doubt that the system needs reform and there's a lot of screwy things that we end up spending money on. they need to be eliminated. >> a lot of screwy things we need to eliminate. that's an understatement. john mccain who has looked through a lot of the pages and has spotted all sorts of screwy things in it is going to be joining us at 8:15 this morning. you don't want to miss that. >> the president has not said a word. he could come out in the last minute and say, hey, you know what? i'm wanot going to support this. >> the alternative would be for him to say you got to

you had requested $4.8 million in earmarks. do you think it's time to overhaul the system that earmarks are a thing of the past? >> absolutely. and to bring that bill to the senate with just a few days left in the session is absolutely wrong. i am delighted that the republicans join together with a couple of fiscally conservative democrats to defeat this. >> okay, but if that's -- >> they're gone now. they're done. >> why did you request earmarks if you don't think they have a place in the spending bill? >> well, they don't have a place for anyone in the spending bill. none of them should be there. you should remove all of them. that is the way that business is done in washington. and i think there's a major mistake. and what we ought to do is look at each of those projects individually, see which ones are reasonable, which are not. there are a lot of bad projects in there. and real list tickically the best way to do it is for all of them to go away. i voted 13 times to have a complete ban for the entire institution. >> if that

do you want the earmarks or don't you want the earmarks? play out in the presidential, already, too, because on the tax cut bill, there is a question of, okay, $858 billion and you have a lot of republican presidential wannabes out there, and mitt romney and sarah palin and to name two saying, okay, we're against this bill, and then you have john thune who is a member of the united states senate saying, you know what, we had to deal and we had to get it. that is going to be set up for 2012. >> well, remember, what looks potent now might not necessarily be potent two years from now. i bring you the iraq debate in hillary clinton who, we all said, she is positioning to run for the presidency, and she is going to vote for this war and by the time she got to the primaries, it was like an anvil around her. i mean, so it is just politics is pretty fleeting in terms of what has potency. >> and all of the groups tshg liberals are mad now, because it is a compromise, and the tea party people are mad because it is a compromise, and divided government

but in the end, he had his own earmarks. his earmarks, come on, steve.going to make an absolute rule, which i totally support, if you want whatever it is in your jurisdiction, your kentucky jurisdiction, make a bill, kentucky mitch mcconnell junior high school bill, you know. so everybody knows. don't sneak them in. >> gretchen: i agree with you. isn't that a first? might be. harry reid -- >> you don't know how it pains me to disagree with you. him, i don't care. >> gretchen: harry reid said this about the earmarks. he says that it would be constitutional to spend our money. >> we have a constitutional duty to do congressionally directed spending and i don't want to give up that responsibility. i can't understand why someone more conservative members here want to give up their power. i don't understand that. >> it sounds lame. but what he's really saying is there is a separation of powers and if the legislature doesn't designate where the money is spent and the executive -- in the executive branch will. that's really what he was saying. it comes down to

. >>> plus, the latest on the battle over earmarks. congress working overtime with just days to go in this lame duck session. we've got live coverage as the votes are happening. >>> i'm the one that signed the paper, right? okay. i don't remember and i don't know who she is. but let them go. >> facing the unimaginable. school board members try to fight back against a man holding them hostin. new details into how a calendar left by the gunman is shedding light into when he may have planned this attack in florida. >>> and speaking of florida, freezing in that state. record-breaking lows in the sunshine state that could mean higher prices for fruits and vegetables very soon. >>> plus -- >> i'm don johnson. and i'm not jewish. >> you want to hear a secret? i'm not jewish. >> plus, are we loosening up when it comes to being politically correct? we'll show you the fund-raising video made by a jewish group that makes fun of jewish people. michael smerconish will join me to take on this one >>> i'm tamron hall. we're following breaking news on

against this spending bill with their earmarks in it. this is a fascinating issue, one that will be debated in the new congress. what does a member of congress do, they get money for their district, right, for things that are needed in their district. the question -- mccain had always defined an earmark something slipped into the bill in the middle of the night that no one ever look at, never went through a committee, was never voted on or scrutinized by any member of congress. this applies to this omnibus spending bill. it didn't go through committees. people just shoved stuff in there. under other conditions is it wrong for any member of congress to say there is a need in my district? that is a different kind of debate and one that is likely to be held in the next congress. megyn: that's yeah they are talking about -- at least we have names attached to them now. by the way in the next two hours we'll be naming them, we'll be telling you who is asking for the pork on both sides of the aisle. they say now at least we know who it is, but

after earmark from the both of you. i mean, millions of dollars in earmarks from the two of you and from other senators. how do you have any credibility on this? why do you have earmarks in here? >> because we're going to vote against the bill. this is the wrong way to do business. >> reporter: were you wrong when you put these earmarks in before? >> karl, this is not just about earmarks. earmarks are a symptom of wasteful washington spending that the american people said they want reformed. >> reporter: is that an acknowledgement that it was wrong to put the earmarks in the first place? i guess that's my question. >> you asked the question about five times and i tried to answer it to the best of my ability. >> reporter: in the house, republicans did abstain from earmarks and have urged the president to veto the bill. but diane, nobody expects that to happen. >> all right, jon karl, following up and on patrol against washington waste. >>> also in washington, the obama administration has filed a huge lawsuit against the

if you don't like earmarks then let's talk about the process without earmarks. they've stood against that. they've opposed that. but earmarks, they're fine with. or even if they're not fine with, they want in this bill. this is just, again, we're going to see a rising tide of people against earmarks right and left, frankly. i don't think that is the way to legislate. but you can't both stonewall progress on stimulus and try to sneak in your own earmarks and then hope that your base is rowled up against earmarks. >> this is senator reid on the ear marks. he responded to yesterday's press conference. >> you can't have it both ways. you can all look it up in the dictionary yourself but i bet if you went to "h" in the dictionary and found hypocrite under that would be people who ask for earmarks who would vote against them. >> what do you think, john? john feehery, where are we at on this? how do you explain this one? >> it's actually quite tease explain. first of all those requests came at the beginning of the year and now the position on earmarks has taken at the

and the republican earmarks. if you look at the -- i think we have the republicans up first, mitch mcconnell, john conner, lamar alexander, john thune, the last john thune being someone who has even talked about for 2012 is a republican and the democrats you've got harry reid, patty murray, chuck schumer, dick durbin, everybody does it. so what's the sort of high and mighty posture by the republicans last night? >> well, the heat is coming from the newly emboldened conservative base in the republican party and the tea partiers and others had railed against earmarks. it really became awkward when you see senator connen come out and attack the bill and then get challenged because he has his own earmarks in it. it just became untenable. they couldn't vote against it. and still have any credibility. and so they just had to tank the bill all together. and this is just a touch of flavor of the kind of fights, many fights that we're going to be in for next year. i can almost see why the republicans would have preferred

john mccain was rallying against earmarks.crats brought forward this 1,900-page bill you jumped on it, said it was an outrage. i want to be clear. there are loads and dozens and dozens of republican earmarks in there and my understanding of it is any of the republicans could have gone to the appropriations committee and said, look, we just promised not to have these earmarks so take mine out, yet they're still in there. is this a bipartisan plague? >> it is. and we have republican senators who may vote in favor of this atrocity. monstrosity and atrocity. by the way, i was speaking rhetorically when i said go pick up your pitchforks. let me make that clear, but, look, this is really a total contradiction, an abrogation of the commitment and the message of november the 2nd. and we republicans have got to understand we have a second chance because of our excesses of the bush administration and i'm not sure they will forgive us another time and you saw the approval rating of 13%. you can't get much lower. if we do this to them, i

tonight, tax cuts and earmarks, how does that work? wikileaks founder julian assange is out of jail on bail. and will the government soon be able to regulate the internet? let's go. ♪ ♪ >>> hello, america. tonight tax cut package heads to vote in the house, or does it? wednesday, the senate passed $858 billion package. president obama now telling democrats in the house to pass this bill with no changes. now it's being held up by procedural complaints filed by the democrats in the house. the federal government is facing a shutdown if congress doesn't pass a spending bill soon. current bill contains $8 billion in earmarksn't didn't we get rid of those? with me republican congressman from texas ron paul. congressman paul, pleasure. welcome here. where do things stand now with the tax package in the house? is the government going to shut down? are the democrats even going to allow the tax bill which keeps the tax rates, the income tax rates where they are to come to the floor for a vote? >> well, we're in recess now. so, the vote is not pe

he has an earmark in this bill. despite that, democrats who controlled the senate right now during this lame duck senate are also going to vote in unison. not what many democrats like in the aftermath of the election but this is going to fund the government for the next two months and i might add one thing, chris, that is house speaker nancy pelosi says she will support this bill despite the fact there are no earmarks in the house version of the bill. >> mitch mcconnell, pat, as you just heard john say, he's in vigorous opposition to the bill, but he has a $650,000 earmark in there for a genetic tech center at the university of kentucky. is this just more politics as usual or given the current climate and the deficit is this tone deaf as john mccain has suggested? >> well, i think what mitch mcconnell has got to do and the republicans have to do is follow john mccain's lead on this because they did get marching orders in november. if they go along with this monster spending bill without a fight and resistance, espec

. >> going through this bill, there's earmark after earmark from the both of you. i mean millions of dollars in earmarks from the two of you and from other senators. how do you have any credibility on this? why do you have earmarks in here? >> because we're going to vote against the bill. this is the wrong way to do business. >> senator, were you wrong when you put these earmarks in here before? >> karl, this is not just about earmarks. earmarks are a symptom of wasteful spending that the american people want a reform -- >> is that an acknowledgement to put the earmarks in in the first place is my question. >> you've asked the question five types and i've tried to answer it to the best of my ability. >> what was it all about? >> well, exactly that. elections have consequences. the tea party has been heard. the republican party, everyone in the republican party feels they have a zero on their back of their suit jacket. they're going to behave. this was a momentous moment when you got the appropriators, it's often been said by john mccain, that there are three partie

not everything is bad about earmarks. it gives needed money and resources to communities that need the money, smaller communities. it is just giving back what we sent in. those are our tax dollars. i have no problem with money coming into this community to help of this community to grow and to provide jobs and resources for the citizens. host: let's move on to rockville, maryland, just outside d.c. . stone, also on the line for democrats for caller: this is nothing s -- short of tyranny and is budgetary crisis to have something like this happen. it this is why the president needs the line item veto where he can say, no way, no how. this is nothing but fiat's money. who is going to pay for this? it is understandable some are -- however, we have gone far beyond the rubicon. this has to stop. this is nothing so -- short of disgrace. i hope today the presidential gathering with the ceo barrons will be nothing more than a photo op -- like a lame jobs summit. one more thing, i heard on the menu at the white house with the ceo's

on deficits and earmarks. john mccain is a champion of earmarks in the '08 campaign.ate line that republicans have to walk. she's on firm footing and doesn't want to see that ground. >> i just want to show how fat that line is. this top ten request for earmarks on the list that came from tax breaks for common sense. we could go on and on. but look at these numbers. hundreds of millions of dollars numbering in requests up to 281 from senator cochran from mississippi. these are big. >> yeah, huge numbers. but this practice has gone on for a long time. we've seen a bigger focus on process than we've ever seen before in american politics. we have 24/7 coverage of these things. nobody ever talked about deem and pass. now everyone has become well schooled. people want to bring home the bacon so it can help them in the next election. >> we'll see what happens with the continuing resolution out there right now. thank you for stopping by. have a great weekend. >> you, too. >> a new poll shows he's the leading candidate for governor. the question remains if obama's former white