Mitt Romney has relentlessly criticized Rick Santorum for his earmark requests as senator. Turns out, the Romney administration worked to obtain certain earmarks from Washington. The Associated Press reports:
Under his leadership, Massachusetts sought tens of millions of dollars in earmarks for transportation projects through the state’s congressional delegation.
A prime example was the $30 million that the Romney administration requested to renovate the historic Longfellow Bridge that spans the Charles River between Cambridge and Boston. The landmark is seen in many movies and television shows.
Romney’s transportation secretary, Daniel A. Grabauskas, asked the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to include the money in a transportation spending bill. That bill was full of thousands of earmarks that sparked public furor and became a symbol for Washington’s out-of-control spending when Congress passed it in 2005.
One point in Romney’s favor: Massachusetts was a donor state (meaning that the state received less from the federal government than taxpayers contributed) from 2003 to 2005, according to the Tax Foundation. (Data was not available for 2006.) For the earlier years of Santorum’s tenure in the senate, Pennsylvania was a donor state (with the exception of 1995), but from 2002 to 2005, the state received more from the federal government than it was contributing.