Keith Ashdown Money Quotations

One of the challenges of defense earmarks -- when you get initial bill 3 or 4 percent has a location tied to the earmark, then look at 535 releases and triangulate to figure out where the money is going.

I have better things to do than hunting around for where the money is hidden, ... We would rather the government be doing this, creating a one-stop shop. Is that really too much to ask?

Our Iraq presence isn't going away; the only thing going away is the people watching how the money is being spent. If you don't have anyone watching it, the precedent is that the money will be wasted.

The fact is, there are not the checks and balances to make sure the money is spent well.

We will learn months after the money was wasted or stolen that it was wasted and stolen.

The last thing on people's minds are these good investments. We are making terrible decisions on where money goes.

It's ironic. This program was set up to save money. But because of poor oversight, it has spent money like Paris Hilton at a shoe sale.

And in almost every case, the local people who really need to be making the money are at the bottom of these upside-down pyramid schemes.

It's trickle-down contracting: You're paying a cut at every level, and it makes the final cost exponentially more expensive than it needs to be. And in almost every case, the local people who really need to be making the money are at the bottom of these upside-down pyramid schemes.

There's definitely a need to get the money on the ground fast. But I don't think any of these proposals would do that. What I see them doing is lessening the transparency. It's the opposite of the way we should be going. We need to know more so we can know if all this money is being spent in a wise and responsible manner.

There's a lot of money in this bill, but bar none we consider the documentary the most egregious provision because it has absolutely nothing to do with alleviating the traffic problems in this nation.