Earmarks Quotes

Be sure to lay wide streets planted with shady trees, every other of a quick-growing variety. Be sure that there is plenty of space for lawns and gardens, reserved large areas for football, hockey and parks. Earmark areas for Hindu temples, Mohammedan mosques and Christian churches. ~ Jamsetji Tata

I had a dream about you. You were in the oil business, and I sold icy roads for a living. You didn't understand who'd buy such a thing, and I said you didn't understand how earmarks get slipped in Congressional bills. ~ Jarod Kintz

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.' ~ Tom Coburn

Look, we know we screwed up when we were in the majority. We fell in love with power. We spent way too much money - especially on earmarks. There was too much corruption when we ran this place. We were guilty. And that's why we lost. ~ Eric Cantor

I'd be a lot more excited about eliminating earmarks if we reduced all of the spending by whatever the earmarks used to be, but nobody's, apparently, going to talk about doing that. ~ Roy Blunt

Earmarks are supposed to be bad. But they don't increase spending. ~ Todd Tiahrt

During my first term in Congress, I signed a pledge that I will take no more earmarks and I've been faithful to that pledge. ~ Michele Bachmann

After the $700 billion bailout, the trillion-dollar stimulus, and the massive budget bill with over 9,000 earmarks, many of you implored Washington to please stop spending money we don't have. But, instead of cutting, we saw an unprecedented explosion of government spending and debt, unlike anything we have seen in the history of our country. ~ Michele Bachmann

Crossed the room to where a selection of implements was arranged on a table top. These could have been mistaken for the trade tools of a cook, physician, or torturer, save for the fact that the surface on which they rested was a slab of polished pink marble, topping a white and gilt dressing table-cum-sculpture, done up in the new, hyper-Baroque style named Rococo. It was adorned, for example, with several cherubs, bows drawn, eyes asquint, as they drew beads on unseen targets, butt cheeks polished to a luster with jeweler's rouge. It had, in other words, all the earmarks of a gift that had been sent to the princess by someone with a lot of money who did not know her very well. ~ Neal Stephenson

It had all the earmarks of a CIA operation; the bomb killed everybody in the room except the intended target! ~ William F. Buckley, Jr.

Think of Jonathan Edwards who thundered the terrors of God and what Hell was like until men grasped their seats and hung on to them, fearing they were falling into Hell itself. Men were moved by fear to escape damnation. That was believed to be Christianity. Why any coward wanted to keep out of Hell. He might not have had one idea in his soul of what was the real true earmark of Christianity. ~ John G. Lake

In the world of commercial speech, tobacco advertising bears the earmarks of an endangered species. ~ Jef I. Richards

We were endowed by our Creator with the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We were not endowed by the Federal Government. We were not endowed by entitlements. We were not endowed by pork barrel spending; we were not endowed by budgetary earmarks. ~ Lawrence Kudlow

Politicians like to confuse congressional spending with earmarks. There is a difference. ~ Marsha Blackburn

I have never been opposed to earmarks. ~ Judd Gregg

I will veto every single beer, um, bill with earmarks. ~ John McCain

I don't think we're crumbling as a civilization, but this is not our finest hour, and it's good to be mindful that we're all susceptible to fall and to look at what are the earmarks of a civilization on the wane. What are they - destruction of the environment? Conspicuous consumption? Heard of those? ~ Mel Gibson

The message is pretty clear: Americans are sick and tired of the doubletalk coming out of Washington, of us going home and saying we're conservative and then coming up here and voting for 10,000 earmarks. We can't fool America anymore; the media is too good. They're reporting what we're really doing. ~ Jim DeMint

Peace is one of the most obvious earmarks of the authority of Christ. ~ Beth Moore

There is in most passions a shrinking away from ourselves. The passionate pursuer has all the earmarks of a fugitive. ~ Eric Hoffer

We know that appropriators will fight these cutbacks. But by eliminating earmarks, we can stop the horse trading that grows agency budgets. ~ Eric Cantor

I've always been interested in past lives, because they're earmarks of what creates us. ~ Sylvia Browne

What is Big Government but the Executive's cocaine dream, an activity devoted solely to jockeying for position, in which he may find license for malversation, and may take the company treasury and direct it toward those people who will support his continued incumbency--it is within the law. Its street name is 'earmarks,' but it is theft. ~ David Mamet

I know of three ways to recognize another writer: Writers are shamelessly nosy. Writers tell good stories, even about dumb old, daily things. On most writers, the earmarks of thrift, if not outright povery, are evident. ~ Joyce Thompson

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. ~ Marsha Blackburn

The supposition that there is massive waste to be cut in the civilian budget is simply a myth. To recapitulate: ending all earmarks and foreign aid and achieving all of the specific cuts on civilian programs proposed by the deficit commission, even if such choices were meritorious, would amount to less than 1 percent of GDP. True ~ Jeffrey D. Sachs

Earmarks do not add spending the budget anymore than choosing to purchase a box of pasta instead of a pound of bananas (i.e., earmarking funds for pasta) adds to one's bill at the supermarket. ~ Sean Kelly

The U.S. Senate does not allow legislative provisions to be included in appropriations bills, for much the same reason that most Americans are concerned about earmarks: it creates a slippery slope by which lobbyists and special interest groups can sneak provisions into large, must-pass legislation. ~ Ron Wyden

I think I'm the last Democrat left in the Senate after Russ Feingold was defeated that won't take earmarks. ~ Claire McCaskill