In last week's presidential debate, John McCain repeated earlier threats to veto legislation containing earmarks. If McCain were elected president -- which is seeming less likely every day-- would he be able to stop earmarks?
The short answer is No. When McCain first started saying he would veto any bill with earmarks earlier this year, Thad Cochran, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said that if he did Congress would simply override his veto. And the votes are there for Congress to do it.
Within the last week and a half, Congress passed by solid veto-proof majorities a bill funding the Defense Department, the Homeland Security Department, the VA and military construction. According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, an anti-earmark group, this bill has $6.6 billion in earmarks (about 1% of the bill's total cost). The House passed the bill by 370 to 58 -- 80 votes more than the 290 needed to override a presidential veto. The Senate vote was 78 to 12 -- 11 votes more than the 67 needed to override a presidential veto.
It's interesting to note that the Senate vote came the day after McCain issued his veto threat at the presidential debate.
Someone sent me an excellent editorial on earmarks from a Wichita paper. Here’s the link, if you care to look at it. http://www.kansas.com/749/story/545581.html.