Defense Pork: It Happens Under Democrats, Too

From a USA Today editorial:

"Absolutely, we need earmark reform. And when I'm president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely."

Thus spoke candidate Barack Obama in last fall's first presidential debate […]

Since reaching the White House, however, Obama's zeal for tackling congressional add-ons has been lukewarm, at best. Early in his presidency, he signed a pork-laden spending bill left over from the previous year but vowed to be more vigilant going forward. Now, his administration is lauding a $636 billion defense spending bill, for the fiscal year that began Thursday, that includes $2.7 billion in earmarks.

The measure contains funding for a new destroyer and 10 C-17 cargo planes that the Pentagon did not ask for. It also includes hundreds of smaller earmarks for projects of special interest to individual lawmakers, among them $25 million for a World War II museum in New Orleans and $20 million for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Boston, a kind of think tank dedicated to the legacy of the late senator.

Link via Sen. John McCain's Twitter feed. Reason on defense earmarks here.