WASHINGTON (AP) Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn is criticizing earmarks contained in a 448 (b) billion dollar budget bill for the Pentagon. The bill passed the Senate today on a 100-to-nothing vote. It includes 70 (b) billion dollars for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and now goes to the White House for President Bush's signature. But Coburn says the bill includes two-thousand earmarks put in by Members of Congress that cost about eight (b) billion dollars and that many have nothing to do with the Defense Department. Earmarks are used by lawmakers to put spending for specific projects in their home states into legislation and Coburn has strongly criticized the practice. Posted at 9/29/2006 11:17:00 AM