[TughEmotteTug]

This is the ugly side of the earmark debate. What we have here is a program that has been eliminated due to budget cuts. That part makes sense.

But at the local level, we've got a politician who would rather pour $500 million more into the aborted program than admit to his campaign donors and constituents that some jobs are going to be lost.

In this case, the politician is Republican Senator Richard Shelby, who slipped a clause into current budget keeping spending levels on the program at $95 million a month until Congress formally passes a 2011 budget, which Shelby and other Republicans kept from passing by its October 1 deadline and have punted until March of next year.

The primary beneficiary of the continued funding are Alliant Techsystems, which is based in Shelby's state and contributed the maximum allowed amount to Shelby's campaign via their PAC. Alliant's employees also contributed heavily to Shelby's campaign.

TPM: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmem...xed_rocket.php