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The earmark favor factory needs to be boarded up and demolished, not turned over to new management that may or may not have a better eye for earmarks with 'merit.'

I have never been opposed to earmarks.

Earmarks are almost always inserted by a member of Congress without any notice to other members, and without a chance for Congress as a whole to debate a particular earmark as they relate to national priorities.

The responsible use of earmarks can have public benefits.

Earmarks have become a symbol of a Congress that has broken faith with the people. This earmark ban shows the American people we are listening and we are dead serious about ending business as usual in Washington.

There's no doubt about it, earmarks are not very popular. There are good earmarks and bad earmarks. The good earmarks are the ones I get for my district.

I'd be a lot more excited about eliminating earmarks if we reduced all of the spending by whatever the earmarks used to be, but nobody's, apparently, going to talk about doing that.

We need earmark reform, and when I'm President, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.

When you have to earmark human and monetary resources for such a long time, it starts to hinder your other activities.

During my first term in Congress, I signed a pledge that I will take no more earmarks and I've been faithful to that pledge.