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It became a sort of poster child for fiscal responsibility a clean-coal power plant in Illinois that was one of then-Sen. Barack Obamas pet projects.
Democrats insisted they were so serious about keeping pork
out of the stimulus bill that it was President Obama himself who blocked the FutureGen project from the massive spending package.
It shows that were serious about it, Brendan Daly, House Speaker Nancy Pelosis spokesman, said at the time. The speaker said it, and the president said it: There will not be earmarks in this bill.
Earmarks? Perhaps not. But funding for FutureGen? Absolutely, to the tune of $1 billion.
The Department of Energy on Friday announced that the FutureGen project is on track after all, committing federal stimulus money to advance the project to its next stage. One reason: It was the only shovel-ready project that fits the requirements of the stimulus bill.
Read more: Stimulus serves up Obama pork - Eamon Javers - POLITICO.com
Obama defended the execution of the stimulus package so far despite the high unemployment figure -- more than 2.7 million jobs have been lost since the start of the year -- arguing that most economists believe the country could have gone "into a tailspin" had the administration done nothing.
"We've done more than ever, faster than ever, more responsibly than ever to get the gears of the economy moving again," Obama said.
1.6 MILLION Jobs Lost since Obama's Pork Bill Passed - Baltimore Sun talk forum
The FANTASY
Richard Danzig, a U.S. Navy secretary during the Clinton administration and a leading contender to be the secretary of Defense in an Obama administration, said he doesn't "see defense spending declining in the first years of an Obama administration. There are a set of demands there that are very severe, very important to our national well-being." U.S. defense spending has risen at a steady clip throughout the Bush administration.
Obama Adviser Doesn't Expect Defense Cuts - WSJ.com
The REALITY
The Obama administration asked the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff to cut the Pentagon budget for fiscal year 2010 by $55 billion, more than 10 percent of last year's $512 billion defense budget.
The announcement came late Friday, following a meeting at the White House between President Obama and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Gen. Jim Jones, chairman of the National Security Council, according to a Fox News report.
The point is Obama's performance as President so far and this is beginning to show in his poll numbers as well, shows a President who appears to be on the constant campaign, as well as one who makes no bones about his desire to spend this nation into oblivion all based on this desire to keep a campaign promise so that his re-election and the mid terms wont be effected. The facts are he needs to concentrate on getting the budget deficit down, reduce taxes, and dump these massive spending programs until this nation has the money to pay for them. However, I would hardly call tripling the deficit by the end of your first year as President an accomplisment and imagine if you add another 2 Trillion dollars to that along with cutting the Military in Wartime and at the same time go around the world apologizing to anyone that will listen. Yes he's accomplised a lot so far, but the biggest thing he has accomplished is that for at least some the marketed version of Obama is not quite the same as the actual version.
I agree, we need to cut the budget.
Can we start with your monthly check?
Are you always the projectionist?