John McCain and Reform

Ok, by now we all know that John McCain intends to reform government. But other than getting rid of earmarks, McCain really hasn't said much about what he wants to reform or how it wants to reform it. Here is a great piece by Brad Plummer at TNR.

Okay, he hates congressional earmarks, and he's promised to veto the first pork-laden bill that crosses his desk. Except that, as Jon Chait pointed out, whenever McCain's been challenged on specific earmarks in the past that are actually popular, he's backed off—as when he met an ovarian cancer patient in Pennsylvania being treated in an earmark-funded clinical trial program. And his campaign has suggested he wouldn't even object to that much-mocked $3 million bear DNA project in Montana, as long as the "process" is clean. So he'll make veto threats against a few earmarks, the "bad" ones, which might affect less than 1 percent of the federal budget. (And even getting rid of all earmarks wouldn't necessarily save taxpayers any money, since it would just mean that federal agencies, rather than Congress, decide how the funds are allocated.)

There is more, read it.