John McCain says Obama spent $1MM per day on Illinois while in office. He's been in office about 300 days, that's $300MM! Sounds pretty horrible. But it doesn't mean much to me: when my mommy friends talk about the $1000 a month they spend at the grocery store, before I judge them, I count their children. $1000 for five kids is a pretty thrifty mommy.
How many kids does John McCain have? How about Obama? How about their Vice-Presidential candidates?
| Population by
State |
| Year |
2008 |
| Alaska |
683,478 |
| Arizona |
6,338,755 |
| Illinois |
12,852,548 |
| Delaware |
864,764 |
| |
|
So Obama's got twice as many as Arizona, and 20 times as many as Alaska. Biden and Palin have very close population figures, and so few mouths to feed in comparison. $300MM/12.8MM people =$23 per person. (Note there's no million sign after that - $23 for each resident. $23.) Must be a gigantic number in comparsion to what McCain and his fellow Arizona representative spend.
So how much, per "kid," did each of them spend in 2008?
| Year |
2008 |
| Alaska |
$555.54 |
| Arizona |
$14.17 |
| Illinois |
$25.47 |
| Delaware |
$64.30 |
| National
Average |
$33.77 |
Wow, John McCain really does feed his family for a low amount (well, him and his fellow Senator and his Representatives). How about that spend thrift Obama? $26 per head. Horrible. Especially when you compare him to Biden who can't get away with spending more than DOUBLE that amount. Horrible. But what is up with Alaska? You tell me that Alaska can't survive on less than 20x the amount Illinois does? Must be those long winters, or maybe it's an anomaly. (That means an irregular occurrence).
Let's look at the past few years:
| Pork Barrel Spending Per Capita |
|
|
|
|
|
| Year |
2008 |
ratio to national average |
2006 |
ratio to national average |
2005 |
ratio to national average |
2004 |
ratio to national average |
| Alaska |
$555.54 |
1645% |
489.87 |
1604% |
$984.85 |
2982% |
$808.13 |
2593% |
| Arizona |
$14.17 |
42% |
38.4 |
126% |
$23.73 |
72% |
$18.75 |
60% |
| Illinois |
$25.47 |
75% |
27.47 |
90% |
$23.32 |
71% |
$18.21 |
58% |
| Delaware |
$64.30 |
190% |
34.46 |
113% |
$48.27 |
146% |
$30.98 |
99% |
| National Average |
$33.77 |
|
30.55 |
|
$33.03 |
|
$31.17 |
|
Crazy isn't it? Looks like Alaska just can't feed itself for less than $500 a person. But Alaskans get a $2000 dividend from oil every year and this year Palin's giving them an additional $1200 rebate. So why can't they pay for those projects themselves? Why do they need an additional $500 per person to get them completed?
Data from Government Citizens Against Waste. I've asked them for the 2007 numbers, but haven't received a reply from them. I don't know why they don't have them up. (That's the unvarnished truth. We need more of that.) http://www.cagw.org (Oh, and I'm not affiliated with them or anyone else. And I've voted Republican as much as I've voted Democrat in my life - so don't call me "one of them" either way.)
