Then and now

Barack Obama, speaking about John McCain's proposal to eliminate $16.9 billion worth of earmarks from the federal budget:

Now, Senator McCain talks a lot about earmarks. That's one of the centerpieces of his campaign.

Earmarks account for 0.5 percent of the total federal budget. There's no doubt that the system needs reform and there are a lot of screwy things that we end up spending money on, and they need to be eliminated. But it's not going to solve the problem.

Barack Obama hailing his plan to cut $17 billion in spending:

In Washington, I guess that's considered trivial. Outside of Washington, that's still considered a lot of money. But these savings, large and small, add up.

Politics in the era of hope and change.