Children 0, Senator Spector 166

Interesting stuff happening on Capitol Hill. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) proposed an amendment to a major health spending bill that said no lawmakers' pet projects (i.e., earmarks) would be funded until "all children in the U.S. under the age of 18 years are insured by a private or public health insurance plan."

Sen. Coburn has been fighting both political parties on earmarks/pork projects, his amendment was an interesting political test to all 100 US Senators: Do you support pork or children?

Not surprisingly, they chose the pork by rejecting the amendment (68 voted for pork, while 26 voted for children).

What I did find surprising is that Sen. Arlen Spector (R-PA) had 166 earmarks in the bill... 166... one hundred, sixty-six earmarks... OMG...

I'll try to get a complete list of the 166 earmarks (as well as the Casey (D-PA), Lautenberg (D-NJ), and Menendez (D-NJ) earmarks) and I'll post them here.