The 2008 Pig Book is out, and even though Republicans and Democrats promised to cut back on the earmarks, they have done the exact opposite. The people we picked to handle our money wrote fat checks for 11,610 pork-barrel projects. The earmark reforms Congress passed last year didn’t count for much apparently. 17.2 billion dollars of your money went to pay for only God knows what.

John McCain didn’t play the earmark game, and I applaud him for being associated with zero earmarks. His home state of Arizona, which is where I live, received the lowest amount of earmarked money with about 90 Million. By comparison, Alaska received the most with a whopping 380 Million. Apparently they didn’t learn from the “bridge to nowhere” fiasco.

Senator Obama had 53 earmarks, to the tune of about 97 Million Dollars. Senator Hillary Clinton had 281 earmarks, for which you and I paid about 296 Million. The McCain campaign will get some good shots in with those numbers, and rightfully so.