(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) was mentioned by Republican presidential candidate John McCain during the first presidential debate on Friday, September 26 in Oxford, Mississippi.

The comment about CAGW came in response to a question by PBS moderator Jim Lehrer, when he asked “What are the fundamental differences between your approach and the approach of Sen. Obama to what you would do to lead this country out of the financial crisis?”  Sen. McCain began by saying “Well, the first thing we have to do is get spending under control in Washington.  It’s completely out of control.  It’s gone -- we have now presided over the largest increase in the size of government since the Great Society...and the -- the worst symptom on this disease is what my friend, Tom Coburn, calls earmarking as a gateway drug, because it’s a gateway.  It’s a gateway to out-of-control spending and corruption…I suggest that people go up on the Web site of Citizens Against Government Waste, and they’ll look at those projects.”

CAGW’s website received a tenfold increase in traffic over Friday evening and throughout the weekend.  “We believe that taxpayers, given the right tools to research the information and educate themselves, are vitally interested in learning how their hard-earned money is being wasted.  The dramatic increase in traffic to the website confirms our belief that taxpayers care deeply about out-of-control federal spending and want Members of Congress to stop secretly earmarking billions of dollars worth of pork-barrel spending,” stated CCAGW President Tom Schatz.  Information about earmarks and pork-barrel spending can be found at the following links; Sen. McCain did not request any earmarks in fiscal year 2008 or in any other year:

CAGW’s report “All About Pork” can be viewed here: /site/PageServer?pagename=reports_earmarks

Earmarks sponsored by Sen. Barack Obama in fiscal year 2008 can be viewed here: /site/PageServer?pagename=reports_pigbook2008_database

Earmarks sponsored by Sen. Joseph Biden in fiscal year 2008 can be viewed here:   /site/PageServer?pagename=reports_pigbook2008_database

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.