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March 15, 2008

Senator Barack Obama's (D-IL) earmarks

Ethel C. Fenig
Barack Obama returned to his day job, Democratic senator from Illinois, for awhile Thursday practicing the same old, trying to send a cool million dollars to his wife's employer, and goodies to supporters. Newsmax reports:
Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has released a list of $740 million in earmark requests he made in the past three years, and it includes $1 million for the hospital where his wife Michelle is a vice president.

The request for $1 million for the University of Chicago Medical Center was to help pay for construction of a new pavilion.
Other Obama earmarks include
$1.3 million for a high-explosive technology program for the Army’s Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The program was overseen by General Dynamics, and one of Obama’s top supporters, James Crown — a member of Obama’s national finance committee — serves on the board of General Dynamics.

Obama also secured a $750,000 earmark for renovation of a space center named for Crown’s grandfather, Henry Crown, at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

And Obama secured several million dollars for a project at Chicago State University. Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones Jr., a close personal friend of Obama and one of his benefactors, has been a strong supporter of Chicago State, according to the Times.
Although
Michelle Obama is on leave from her job while her husband campaigns for president, but after Barack was elected to congress, she received a big raise.

USA Today reports that officials at the University of Chicago Hospitals told the Chicago Tribune that Michelle is "worth her weight in gold."

"She's terrific," added Michael Riordan, who was president of the hospital in March 2005, when Michelle Obama was promoted to vice president for external affairs and had her annual salary increased from $121,910 to $316,962.
And to think just a few weeks ago Michelle Obama was complaining how difficult it was for a young couple like the Obamas to make it on their small salaries,  what with paying the mortgage on the now controversial mansion close to the hospital, those lurking college loans demanding repayment and of course the fees for extra curricular lessons for their two young children. 

Now, Ms. Obama's employer is a fine hospital with a superb reputation; home of cutting edge research that has advanced medicine while serving the community, indeed the country, with excellent care.  And the earmark for the hospital will surely continue and extend their services to the taxpayers.  So maybe some things don't need to change.

However by the next day Senator Obama and his old fashioned earmarks had once again morphed into his side job of campaigning for the presidency under the banner of change.  But the earmarks remained. 

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