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Change You Can Earmark

by davidb11171 | August 11, 2008 at 9:02 AM
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This story is getting some attention on Digg. So digg it!

Obama funnels federal money to top campaign contributors

Although earmarking large sums of money to top supporters and fundraisers is a popular practice in both houses of Congress, not many people would expect such questionable activity from a shining star of liberalism and reform like Illinois Senator Barack Obama. Sadly, he is following a pattern of conspicuous allocations of federal funds. Just as he handed a million dollar earmark to his wife’s employers in 2006 (immediately after which her pay shot up from $121,910 a year to $316,962), Sen. Obama is now drastically increasing earmarks that go to his biggest supporters.

 In 2006, Sen. Obama requested an earmark $300,000 to replace and update the projector system at the Adler Planetarium. In 2008, he requested $3,000,000 for replacement of the projector system and other equipment in the Sky Theater. For reference, this is three times the amount he earmarked for the HIV/AIDS Policy and Research Institute at Chicago State University.

While the Adler Planetarium earmarks look normal on the surface, there is a catch. The Chairman and two of the Vice Chairman of the Adler Planetarium Board of Trustees raised a total of almost $250,000 for Sen. Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign. The Adler Planetarium was probably pleasantly surprised when they found that their earmark increased by $2.7 million dollars, in other words, by a factor of ten.

The Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Frank Clark, stands out amongst Obama supporters. On Sen. Obama’s website, Mr. Clark is listed as a bundler who raised in excess of $200,000 for the Senator’s Presidential campaign. In 2004, Mr. Clark donated $5,000 to the then State Senator Obama’s U.S. Senate bid. In 2005, Mr. Clark became the Chairman of the Board at Adler Planetarium, and in 2006 Sen. Obama earmarked $300,000 to the Planetarium. Then, in the same year that Mr. Clark’s involvement in the Obama campaign skyrocketed to raising an excess of $200,000, Sen. Obama’s earmark for the Adler Planetarium increased tenfold to $3,000,000.

Mr. Clark isn’t the only problematic donor. Two of the Vice Chairmen of the Board, Brian Cressey and Peter Thompson are also significant donors. Between donations from Mr. Thompson and the Cressey household, Sen. Obama received $13,800. The most significant donor here is Mr. Cressey. As a first time donor, Mr. Cressey gave the maximum possible individual donation in essentially one big check. What makes this even more troubling is that Mr. Cressey had never given to Sen. Obama before 2008, the year in which the Adler Planetarium’s earmark increased tenfold.

The fact that three ranking members of the Adler Planetarium’s Board donated huge sums of money (at least $200,000) is interesting by itself. The fact that these enormous contributions came in the same year that Sen. Obama increased their earmark by 900% is truly unsettling. 

Written by David and Daniel Byler

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Comments

Adler Planetarium is a Public, Not for profit institution.

Submitted by Objective Reason on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 12:28.

This critique is a little bit of a stretch.  I would understand that if Senator Obama were doing this for a private business there could be a little bit of an uproar.  Unfortunately, this article is doing little more than pointing out something that improves a fine Chicago landmark.

Senators appropriate funds for a variety of causes.  Adler Planetarium is adjacent to the museum campus in Chicago and is part of the draw for turism for the city.  It needs public funding because, as a publically funded, non-profit governmental institution, it is unable to serve its purpose without government funding.  This is not a giveaway to some big private oil company, it is keeping a fine aspect of the city working.  It is no less valuable to the city than the roads that lead there. 

It is likely that if you look harder you will find that many people from many boards have given significant amounts of money to Senator Obama's campaigns, yet they did not receive any special treatment.  If something needs to be done for a public institution in Illinois or Chicago, I expect nothing more than help from my govermental representatives and it appears that that is exactly what Senator Obama has done.

Obama's earmark pork

Submitted by Freedoms Truth on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 12:51.

Just as Obama got earmark pork for Trinity UCC and helped Rev Phleger out with earmarks, here he is helping out his friends with earmarks:

Mr. Clark is listed as a bundler who raised in excess of $200,000 for the Senator’s Presidential campaign. In 2004, Mr. Clark donated $5,000 to the then State Senator Obama’s U.S. Senate bid. In 2005, Mr. Clark became the Chairman of the Board at Adler Planetarium, and in 2006 Sen. Obama earmarked $300,000 to the Planetarium.

So your defense of him is:

Senators appropriate funds for a variety of causes.

And is this consistent with the constitution and the real duties of a Senator? New kind of politics or same old insider dealings and using my taxpayer money to help his friends?

If something needs to be done for a public institution in Illinois or Chicago, I expect nothing more than help from my govermental representatives and it appears that that is exactly what Senator Obama has done.

Just because it is not-for-profit doesnt make this any less an example of diverting Federal money for a special interest.  So you consider it the job of legislators to raid the Federal taxpayer for local earmark pork projects?  Why cant the local or state Govt pay for this local institution?

A billion here, a billion there ... This stuff adds up ...

Obama is #1 in Spending!!!! - "Barack Obama at $287 billion for new spending proposals in a 2008 Presidential Candidate Budget Analysis put together by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation."

Money for his buddies

Submitted by Soren Dayton on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 14:08.

Who cares what the motivations are. It is still money for his buddies.

adler

Submitted by ccpetersen on Wed, 10/08/2008 - 08:34.

 

I trust you are examining Senator McCain's earmarks and buddies just as closely?  Or is this a level of scrutiny you reserve only for non-Republicans?

I don't see the problem with funding science education as an earmark. It beats the hell out of funding earmarks for bridges to nowhere and other GOP pet projects that enrich the wealthy cronies and buddies of the Republican senator. Especially so since Senator McCain has secured quite a load of earmarked money for his constituents AND among the securers are many of his buddies and friends in the industries the earmarks benefit.  Let us not forget his role in the Keating scandals, when many average Americans lost their money to his grifter friends and he enabled it. He's even acknowledged his role and apologized for it (although that didn't help the folks who lost their life savings).

Please do your homework equally on both candidates and the rest of us might have some respect when you whine about your opponents doing exactly what your candidate does. 

For the record, I'm an independent voter, socially liberal and fiscally conservative. I admire new ideas, fresh starts, and audacity, as long as they don't stem from lies, deceit, obvious right-wing manipulation of the truth, and the continuation of tired old GOP policies.  Which means I find little to admire in the GOP selections this year. Your party was once one to admire, and I have voted for GOP candidates in the past when they seemed to match my goals.  No longer.

 

 

 

 

 

Republican Earmarks

Submitted by David and Daniel Byler on Mon, 10/13/2008 - 16:59.

I think that earmarks are often abused. McCain has taken the high road on this issue by not ever requesting a single earmark. The Keating scandal was a problem with him using his position to protect a donor from an investigation. He has apologized for his behavior and it spurred him to take on campaign finance reform.

We don't argue that the Planetarium is as bad as Duke Cunningham's stuff. We argue that who gets these earmarks seems to have a lot to do with who knows Barack, and perhaps not as much to do with who deserves it the most.