Free Republic

If you want to know how out of touch Congress is on the issue of wasteful spending, listen to Florida Rep. John Mica defend his pork projects: "There's no way in hell I would support banning earmarks. That's our job, getting elected and making decisions." Mr. Mica is the most powerful Republican on the Transportation Committee. The idea that bringing home federal dollars is integral to a politician's job and essential to getting re-elected is a favorite of Republicans and Democrats alike. Three months ago, Hillary Clinton told the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, "I'm very proud of my earmarks. It's one...

Only 16 Senators, all conservative Republicans, voted against the massive $50 billion global AIDS spending bill (S. 2731) when it came up for a final vote on Wednesday night. The outcome, which included the addition of water projects for Indian reservations, demonstrated the complicity of both major political parties in out-of-control spending designed to benefit a powerful special interest group. The final vote was 80-16 with Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, both original sponsors of the bill, on the campaign trail and not available to cast a vote on the Senate floor. Dr. Paul Zeitz of the Global AIDS...

The Department of Transportation is refusing to move forward on an earmark backed by Rep. Paul Kanjorski (Pa.), the rare House Democrat facing a tough reelection this fall. Transportation (DoT) is blocking funds to build a $5.6 million parking garage to the Kanjorski Center, which was constructed to attract economic development in the city of Nanticoke in Kanjorski’s Eastern Pennsylvania district. Kanjorski’s earmark for the project was included in the 2005 transportation bill. DoT contends the garage does not meet federal rules intended to spur the use of public transportation. Those rules allow federal funds for parking garages only if...

In an attempt to garner a few extra votes this November, Rep. Ron Klein sent $1,635,000 to South Florida in the form of earmarks hidden away in the Fiscal 2009 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act. He went after the teacher's union vote by dishing out $585,000 to provide a teacher mentoring and training program. Broward Community College received $200,000 for aviation equipment. Palm Beach Community College was given $300,000 for equipment and technology. $175,000 was given to the Jewish Federation of Broward County, Davie for a program that gives demonstrations on family caregivers. And he also...

(CNSNews.com) - The House of Representatives tucked $277.9 million worth of earmarks - items in a spending bill usually designated for a congressman's district or state - into the appropriations bill it passed before the July 4 break. That number is a 122 percent increase over the amount spent on earmarks in last year's bill, according to the watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW). The appropriations bill in question is the Fiscal 2009 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act, or simply Labor/HHS. "In typical Congressional fashion, the Labor/HHS bill is loaded with pork projects and wasteful...

Huck PAC Endorses Don Young Huck PAC, created by former Arkansas Governor and Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, has officially endorsed Congressman Don Young in his re-election bid for Alaska's seat in the House of Representatives. The endorsement release can be found below and at this link. Rep. Young by Team Huck PAC Representative Don Young is running for re-election in Alaska. A strong conservative, Don Young's stance on the issues makes him a Huck PAC endorsed candidate. Don Young has focused on: 1. Making America energy independent. 2. Improving our nation's infrastructure. 3. A strong military and defense. He...

Add "Porker of the Month" to the trophies on Sen. Christopher J. Dodd's mantle. Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named Sen. Dodd its June porker for his "blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers," and for his "monstrous mortgage bailout bill that will dump ($300 billion) worth of risky mortgages onto the backs of taxpayers while lending a helping hand to his corporate benefactor." He saved $75,000 under VIP mortgages he got from Countrywide Financial in 2003. Now his bailout package seeks to reward the most unscrupulous subprime lenders and the most irresponsible borrowers at the expense of homeowners...

(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama took his campaign to Miami, Florida, on Saturday with a message to the nation's mayors: I'll be your ally in Washington, Sen. John McCain will not. (snip) "Both Sen. McCain and I have traveled recently to the areas that have been devastated by floods. And I know that Sen. McCain felt as strongly as I did feeling enormous sympathy for the victims of the recent flooding. ... And I'm sure they appreciated the sentiment, but they probably would have appreciated it even more if Sen. McCain hadn't opposed legislation to fund levees and flood control...

house.govNick Lampson has disclosed his earmark requests for 2009. The deadline has passed for House members to submit their requests for earmark projects for fiscal year 2009. We'll post the requests by the Houston delegation as we receive them. Here they are for Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford: • $1.25 million for Advanced Materials Research and Development for Space Shuttle Program • $3 million for Air National Guard Air fleet Technology Modernization • $2.72 million for Arcola-Fresno Regional Water & Wastewater Infrastructure • $1 million for Bay Area Houston Technology and Education Center • $3 million for Big Creek Mitigation...

house.govKevin Brady has disclosed his earmark requests for 2009. The deadline has passed for House members to submit their requests for earmark projects for fiscal year 2009. We'll post the requests by the Houston delegation as we receive them. Here they are for Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands: Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science: • $1.48 million for Sam Houston State Rural Crime Lab Subcommittee on Defense: • $3.225 million for No-Idle Climate Control for Military Vehicles • $3.5 million for Texas Research Institute for Environmental Studies, Sam Houston State University Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development: • $1.7...

house.govRon Paul has disclosed his earmark requests for 2009. The deadline has passed for House members to submit their requests for earmark projects for fiscal year 2009. We'll post the requests by the Houston delegation as we receive them. Here they are for Rep. Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson: Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science: • $250,000 for Galveston Economic Development Partnership, for Galveston Center for Business and Technology Development to help spin off private investment at National Lab of the University of Texas Medical Branch • $500,000 for City of Bay City for NuBlac Rehab Center (youth rehabilitation) Subcommittee...

   Who’s Pumping It Up? June 12, 2008 If the U.S. Congress treated the taxpayer with the same largesse as the “Big Five” oil companies do...everybody would go out and lease a new SUV. But, as the average price of regular gasoline drove through the $4 per gallon level, the Congress of this country embarked on more certain-to-fail energy schemes...and did so with gaseous verbosity. The Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate’s latest confiscatory socialist scheme is a windfall profits tax “against” U.S. oil companies. The Democrats want to levy a 25 percent tax on oil company profits exceeding what they would determine to be "reasonable". The...

AL Gore claims that "good enough for government work" once implied that such work met the highest standards of excellence. Maybe. But in the US Senate's kitchens, "good enough for government work" means any meal that doesn't require a stomach pump. [Snip] As befits a government-run commissary, the Senate cafeteria has a decidedly Soviet attitude toward variety. It has averaged only two new menu items a year over the last decade. The food is so bad, every lunch hour Senate staffers rush to the House side of the Capitol like starving New Yorkers of the future storming the last Soylent...

The majority party in congress is pulling out all the stops to assist Barack Obama’s presidential bid. According to the AP, the Dems have juggled the legislative agenda to reflect Obama’s political platform: Between now and Election Day, Democrats say they will use Congress to showcase the kinds of change promised by their presidential candidate, Barack Obama. Of course, this is old politics — not the shiny new brand Obama likes to trumpet. Whatever legislation Democrats offer, it will have been vetted for the benefit of the Obama campaign as is traditional between the congressional majority and its presidential candidate....

WASHINGTON - So much for trimming the pork. The practice of decorating legislation with billions of dollars in pet projects and federal contracts is still thriving on Capitol Hill — despite public outrage that helped flip control of Congress two years ago. More than 11,000 of those "earmarks," worth nearly $15 billion in all, were slipped into legislation telling the government where to spend taxpayers' money this year, keeping the issue at the center of Washington's culture of money, influence and politics. Now comes an election-year encore. It's a pay-to-play sandbox where waste and abuse often obscure the good that...

WASHINGTON - So much for trimming the pork. The practice of decorating legislation with billions of dollars in pet projects and federal contracts is still thriving on Capitol Hill — despite public outrage that helped flip control of Congress two years ago. More than 11,000 of those "earmarks," worth nearly $15 billion in all, were slipped into legislation telling the government where to spend taxpayers' money this year, keeping the issue at the center of Washington's culture of money, influence and politics. Now comes an election-year encore. It's a pay-to-play sandbox where waste and abuse often obscure the good that...

Examples of lawmakers who have sponsored earmarks for private companies and received campaign contributions from them and, in some cases, their lobbyists: _Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, a member of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, obtained a $2.4 million earmark last year for the Greentree Group of Beavercreek, Ohio, for a digital information sharing system. Greentree Group executives, their families and consultants have donated $43,350 to Hobson since 2000, reports The Columbus Dispatch. _Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., a member of House defense appropriations subcommittee, sponsored a $2 million earmark to 21st Century Systems last year for a virtual fence demonstration project....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress on Thursday sent a $290 billion farm bill to President Bush for a second time in an effort to fix a printing error that has threatened the delivery of U.S. food aid abroad. To ensure that the aid continues amid a global hunger crisis, Congress and Bush were planning to pass, veto and enact the bill to provide farm subsidies, food stamps and other nutrition programs over the next five years. The Senate passed the bill 77-15, two weeks after the discovery that 34 pages of the legislation extending those aid programs were missing from the...

WASHINGTON — The Texas Department of Transportation, long viewed as hyperpartisan and arrogant by some members of the state's congressional delegation, has been trying to soften its image by reaching out to lawmakers of both parties in the nation's capital. But while state transportation officials are having some success in easing the personal animus, they still face a stiff challenge in selling their policy agenda to the state's elected officials in Washington. Many Texans on the Potomac cringe at the agency's embrace of toll roads, the controversies surrounding the Trans-Texas Corridor and TxDOT's resistance to many of the highway earmarks...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Democrats moved forward with plans to override President Bush's veto of a $290 billion farm bill Thursday despite a printing error that has turned a triumphant political victory into a vexing embarrassment. It seems that no one read the bill after it was printed on parchment paper and sent to the White House, where Bush vetoed it Wednesday. Missing was a 34-page section on international food aid and trade. Democratic leaders in the House decided to pass the bill again, including the missing section in the version that Bush got. That vote was 306-110, again enough to...

Governor Deval Patrick has decided against taking action to allow illegal immigrants to pay resident tuition and fees at state colleges and universities this fall, an administration official said yesterday, crushing advocates who were counting on the governor to deliver on a pledge to support the students. Earlier this year, Patrick said he was considering ways to offer illegal immigrants in-state rates, such as issuing a regulation, adding that it would be "the right thing to do." The governor declined to comment yesterday, but an administration source who spoke on condition of anonymity said Patrick decided that there were "significant...

WOULD YOU LOOK AT THE LENGTH OF THIS SENTENCE? I've been telling you – and I'm not alone here – that with Barack Obamamessiah running for president we're rapidly going to degenerate into a situation where any criticism of Obama made by anyone who isn't black is going to be labeled as racism. What's more, if he is elected we're going to have four years (and probably only four) of dismissals of any criticisms as race-based. This is going to get real old real fast. Just to reinforce my feelings here I want to share an email we received from...

The House overwhelmingly rejected George W. Bush's veto Wednesday of a $290 billion farm bill, but what should have been a stinging defeat for the president became an embarrassing episode for Democrats. Only hours before the House's 316-108 vote, Bush had vetoed the five-year measure, saying it was too expensive and gave too much money to wealthy farmers when farm incomes are high. The Senate then was expected to follow suit quickly. Action stalled, however, after the discovery that Congress had omitted a 34-page section of the bill when lawmakers sent the massive measure to the White House. That means...

WASHINGTON — The House quickly rejected George W. Bush's veto Wednesday of a $290 billion farm bill and the Senate was poised to follow suit, a stark rebuke of a president overridden only once in his two terms. Only hours before the House's 316-108 vote, Bush had vetoed the five-year measure, saying it was too expensive and gave too much money to wealthy farmers when farm incomes are high. The legislation includes election-year subsidies for farmers and food stamps for the poor — spending that lawmakers could promote when they are back in their districts over the Memorial Day weekend....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush vetoed the $300 billion farm bill on Wednesday, calling it a tax increase on regular Americans at a time of high food prices in the face of a near-certain override by Congress. It was the 10th veto of Bush's presidency. But since it passed both houses of Congress with veto-proof majorities, his action will likely be overridden. The president believes the legislation is fiscally irresponsible and gives away too much money to wealthy farmers, yet his criticism rang hollow with lawmakers from both parties who voted for increased crop subsidies, food stamps for the poor...

I may surprise some people by saying what few presidential candidates would ever be willing to say out loud in farm country: I'd veto the farm bill—a bloated expansion in federal spending that will do more harm than good. When agricultural commodity prices and exports have reached record highs, we no longer need government-grown farms and mammoth government bureaucracies. As grocery bills soar, food banks go bare and food rationing occurs on a global scale, we must challenge the wisdom of this bill. We must question policies that divert more than 25 percent of corn out of the food supply...

Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, at age 38 and having served less than five terms, did not leap over a dozen of his seniors to become ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee by bashing GOP leaders. But an angry Ryan last Wednesday delivered unscripted remarks on the House floor as the farm bill neared passage: "This bill is an absence of leadership. This bill shows we are not leading." Ryan's fellow reformer, 45-year-old Jeff Flake of Arizona, in his fourth term, is less cautious about defying the leadership and has been kept off key committees. On Wednesday, he said...

There is no doubt that Anthony D. Weiner wants to be mayor of New York. And there is no doubt, to that end, that he has seen an opening to wound a rival: criticizing Christine C. Quinn and the City Council he once was a member of for doling out money to favored groups in their districts. “We should get rid of earmarks altogether, get rid of these member items altogether,” Mr. Weiner said last week, saying such a move would “restore public confidence” in government. Of course, as a congressman, Mr. Weiner has his own earmarked funds to spread...

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday approved a five-year, $307 billion farm bill with wide bipartisan support, virtually sealing President Bush’s defeat in a battle over agriculture policy. Mr. Bush has promised to veto the bill because he says it would not do enough to limit subsidies at a time of record grain prices. His advisers said Thursday that he had every intention of making good on that vow. The Senate vote, 81 to 15, with 35 Republicans in favor, guarantees an easy override of a veto. The House passed the bill on Wednesday, 318 to 106, also far more...

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 "You're Going to Lose If You Keep This Up"   [Kathryn Jean Lopez] As Sean Hannity issued the above warning to congressional Republicans today on his show, the House — including enough Republicans (100) to amass a veto-proof majority — passed the pork-laden farm bill. We editorialized on the bill: The program is nothing more than a massive income transfer from American taxpayers to a small handful of very large producers who grow just a few crops; the program can’t be serving the purposes its defenders claim it does — ensuring a stable food supply and...

REVIEW & OUTLOOK Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? May 14, 2008; Page A20 We can't wait to hear how Members of Congress explain their vote this week for the new $300 billion farm bill. At a time when Americans are squeezed at the grocery store, they will now see more of their taxes flow to the very farmers profiting from these high food prices. This year farm income is expected to reach an all-time high of $92.3 billion, an increase of 56% in two years, making growers perhaps the most undeserving welfare recipients in American history. But that won't...

Italy's Finmeccanica to buy DRS Technologies for $5.2BBusiness Courier of Cincinnati DRS Technologies Inc., which has several Cincinnati-area operations, is being bought by Finmeccanica SpA, an Italian aerospace and defense supplier, for $5.2 billion. Finmeccanica said the deal, expected to close in the fourth quarter this year, allows the company to enter the U.S. market and enables DRS to better compete in the global military and security market. DRS (NYSE: DRS) will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary, maintaining its current management and headquarters. The company will lead Finmeccanica's defense electronics efforts in the United States and it is expected...

There will be unmelted snowballs in Hades before this Congress agrees to cut out the pork in the farm bill headed for a vote within the next week, so President Bush should get his veto pen ready. At an estimated cost of at least $285 billion over 10 years, this will be the most expensive and regressive farm bill ever. Given how Congress uses budget gimmicks these days to hide the real costs of many of the bills it approves, that $285 billion figure is almost certainly too low. If there was a truth-in-spending law with real teeth in it,...

The practice of political correctness may soon be tallying another casualty: the pig. Increasingly, as America and the rest of the Western world continue accommodating Muslim religious demands, pork food products are being singled out for removal from dining tables and pig-related trinkets banished from the desks of office workers. If this continues, good ol’ American food, such as barbeque replete with hot dogs and ribs and the typical American breakfast of eggs, bacon and sausage, might be seen as the equivalent of political poison. Could outright censorship of pig depictions in drawings, pig references in literary works and pig...

The practice of political correctness may soon be tallying another casualty: the pig. Increasingly, as America and the rest of the Western world continue accommodating Muslim religious demands, pork food products are being singled out for removal from dining tables and pig-related trinkets banished from the desks of office workers. If this continues, good ol’ American food, such as barbeque replete with hot dogs and ribs and the typical American breakfast of eggs, bacon and sausage, might be seen as the equivalent of political poison. Could outright censorship of pig depictions in drawings, pig references in literary works and pig...

Hillary Clinton might be behind in the presidential race when it comes to the delegate tally, but she’s ahead in another count: earmarks. At nearly $2.3 billion, Clinton actually is leading the whole Senate with her dollar request for special projects for the 2009 fiscal year, The Hill newspaper reports. The earmark deadline passed Friday, and she is the only one of the three presidential candidates to put in pork-barrel requests. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has made anti-earmark stance a campaign platform, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has cast off earmarking this year, although since 2004 he has requested about $740...

The role of Islam in Turkish society is a subject of continual debate. Secularists are protesting against what they see as the government's increasingly Islamic agenda, and as Sarah Rainsford found out, the latest battleground could be across the butcher's counter. "We're going filming at a pork butcher's and a pig farm," I told my Turkish cameraman in a text message. Slightly anxious, I added: "Is that OK with you?" A moment later a message from Gokhan flashed back. "Yes," he wrote. "I like a good pork steak!" He is not the only one. Another Turkish friend told me that...

In today's Daily Congressional, let's look at what on the surface appears to be a symbolic bill. Is it? H. RES. 981 Recognizing March 6, 2008, as the first-ever World Glaucoma Day, established to increase awareness of glaucoma, which is the second leading cause of preventable blindness in the United States and worldwide. Whereas glaucoma is a progressive disease of the optic nerve, robbing individuals of both peripheral and central vision; Whereas glaucoma affects all age groups, including infants, children, and the elderly; Whereas glaucoma disproportionately affects underserved minority populations, with African-Americans having a three times greater risk of developing...

Chalk up two more pyrrhic victories for the cynics about the Capitol's ability to do the public's business in a straightforward, unhypocritical manner – and the outgoing speaker of the state Assembly, Fabian Núñez, is at the center of both. Victory No. 1 has to do with the Assembly's secretive decision to offer more than 200 of its staff members a golden handshake in the form of extra pension benefits. It's being billed as a contribution to closing the state's chronic budget deficit, but how it does that is, to put it charitably, unclear since the Assembly refuses to release...

WASHINGTON – The Senate on Thursday took the rare action of asking the Justice Department to investigate an Alaska congressman's earmark for a Florida highway project, a matter that threatens to become the "bridge to nowhere" of 2008 and could endanger veteran Rep. Don Young's political future. The Senate's 64-28 vote calls on the Justice Department to look into the circumstances surrounding the 2005 earmark, which shifted $10 million from a project to widen Interstate 75 in southwest Florida to a study of a Coconut Road interchange that promised to benefit one of Young's campaign donors. The attention to a...

New Details Presented In Outbreak In Pork Processing Plant Workers ScienceDaily (Apr. 18, 2008) — New details on the neurological illness that has affected workers at several pork processing plants were presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 60th Anniversary Annual Meeting in Chicago, April 16, 2008. Neurologists have identified the illness as a new disorder which causes symptoms ranging from a transverse myelitis syndrome, inflammation of the spinal cord, in one patient to mild weakness, fatigue, numbness and tingling in arms and legs. Researchers are classifying this condition as an immune polyradiculoneuropathy, (a disease of the peripheral nerves and...

Texas Department of Transportation that claims it has no money for roads uses $20 million in gas tax funds to build a park. Woodall Rodgers ParkThe Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation announced yesterday that the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) would hand over $20 million in gas tax funds to help build a 5.2 acre park near downtown Dallas. The $67 million park is intended to serve as a model public-private partnership with a restaurant, a children's playground and a dog park. It will have no roads. "The park... will connect Uptown, Downtown and the Arts District, and is expected to...

Fri April 11, 2008 Coburn fights in vain against land proposal By Chris Casteel Washington Bureau WASHINGTON — Sen. Tom Coburn, so frustrated that he shouted at times, tried in vain Thursday to change a wide-ranging public lands bill and wound up in a sharp exchange with a veteran Republican senator from New Mexico. Coburn, R-Muskogee, had been holding up action for weeks on the legislation, which combines more than 60 bills. They had been pending in the Senate regarding public parks and heritage areas, land and water studies, and such miscellaneous items as $2 million to celebrate the 200th...

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., wants $500,000 in federal money to build a welcome center in Ridgefield and $1 million for a new records management system for the city of Vancouver. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., wants $1 million to study rare blood issues at a Puget Sound blood center and $1.5 million to assess the feasibility of building a sea wall in Elliott Bay. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., is seeking $1.5 million in federal money to expand a cystic fibrosis program at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, while Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., wants $500,000 for organic farming research...

WASHINGTON — A taxpayer watchdog group released its annual report on congressional pork-barrel spending Wednesday, listing 11,610 projects totaling $17.2 billion — including the San Antonio River Improvements Project. "It's business as usual, unfortunately," Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, said at a news conference in releasing the 2008 Congressional Pig Book. More information The taxpayer watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste singled out these Texas projects in its Pig Book of pork-barrel spending: • $5.8 million for a fitness center at Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo, requested by Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Midland. • $5.2 million for a...

What’s the only thing worse than Republicans on a spending spree? Democrats on a spending spree. Or maybe Republicans on a spending spree when they know the Democrats are going to take the heat. Either way, your representatives in Washington D.C. are a bunch of dirty filthy liars. 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.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. Congress, trying to appear frugal with taxpayer dollars this election year, found on Wednesday that some in their own ranks topped a list of "pork" spenders in a watchdog group's analysis of government waste. The annual survey by Citizens Against Government Waste claims that 11,610 special-interest projects were stuffed into spending bills approved by the Democratic-led Congress last year at a $17.2 billion cost to taxpayers. But according to the survey, it was individual Republicans who pushed the most "pork" last year. In addition, the three House of Representative Republicans who sponsored legislation...

WASHINGTON - Get out the trough, it's feeding time. Congress has decided that an election year with recession written all over it is not the time to be giving up those job-producing "pork" projects bemoaned by both parties' presidential candidates. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has quietly shelved the idea of a one-year moratorium on so-called earmarks, the $18 billion or so in pet projects that lawmakers sent to their home states this year. Senators in both parties have voted to kill the idea. The California Democrat earlier had signaled her support for the idea of including no legislative earmarks in...

Most Americans don’t like it when a third of their income gets taken away by Washington only to be spent according to the wishes of a flawed few. But as is inherent in human nature, these taxpayers try hard to come up with a justification for sending other Americans an arbitrary amount of their own hard-earned money. And unsurprisingly, the one rationale they can pass for a quasi-consolation is that hey, at least the money is going to something good. Is it really? In recent years, you have paid $325,000 for a swimming pool that you will never swim in,...

Senator Barack Obama on Thursday released a list of $740 million in earmarked spending requests that he had made over the last three years, and his campaign challenged Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to do the same. The list included $1 million for a hospital where Mr. Obama’s wife works, money for several projects linked to campaign donors and support for more than 200 towns, civic institutions and universities in Illinois. But as the Senate debated a bill to restrict the controversial method of paying for home-state projects — a measure defeated Thursday evening — Mr. Obama’s presidential campaign also said...