Obama Will Sign Spending Bill Despite Earmarks

[Zoom-boing]

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will break a campaign pledge and sign a budget bill laden with millions in lawmakers' pet projects, administration officials said.

Administration budget chief Peter Orszag and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel both downplayed the $410 billion spending bill and signaled Obama would hold his nose and sign it. Orszag said: "We want to just move on. Let's get this bill done, get it into law and move forward.

Said Emanuel: "That's last year's business."

The House last week passed the measure that would keep the government running through Sept. 30, when the federal budget year ends. Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group, identified almost 8,600 specially sponsored projects totaling $7.7 billion; Democrats say the number is $3.8 billion.

Either way, it is far more than Obama promised as a candidate. He refused "earmarks" for the economic stimulus package he championed and a children's health bill.

He similiarly pledged to reject tailored budget requests that let lawmakers send money to their home states. Orszag said Obama would move ahead and overlook the time-tested tradition that lets officials divert millions at a time to pet projects.

"We want to make sure that earmarks are reduced and they're also transparent. We're going to work with the Congress on a set of reforms to achieve those," said Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Obama's top hands assigned responsibility to their predecessors and President George W. Bush.

Blaming Bush-era proposals for deficits, Obama wanted to set up his own budget that would start Oct. 1, which he proposed last week with a bold goal of cutting the deficit by half within his four-year term.

"First, this is a $1.7 trillion deficit he inherited. Let's be clear about that. We inherited this deficit and we inherited $4 trillion of new debt," Emanuel said. "That is the facts."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/03/01/budget-chief-obama-sign-spending/


Obama breaks his campaign promise of no more earmarks. So what else is new? Blame Bush, break promises, spend this country to ruin. Some guy, huh?

This ass doesn't even know proper grammar and he's the Chief of Staff.

 

[driveby]

The zombies shall continue to follow ....

 

[WillowTree]

It is as was expected! hey! ya know what I'm saying?

 

[editec]

How one could structure a SPENDING BILL OF THIS SIZE and NOT include specific projects I cannot imagine.

I suppose they could just shunt ALL SPENDING to the states to dole out but I doubt that they states would invest in things like GREEN TECHNOLOGY, since their fiscal problems are much more dire.

If your complaint is that there's a lot of pork in this bill, I'm inclined to agree with you, though.

 

[Life_Long_Dem!]

pork is in the eye of the beholder...as was said on many news shows yesterday if a bill has money allocated for a senaters state he will say it is good cause its for HIS state but if nothing is in it for him its pork and its bad

 

[twogreen2c]

Unfortunately, some so-called Republicans threw their pet projects into the budget. All these b-turds care about is getting re-elected. We need term limits and real people, not politicians, to represent the citizens. And as far as Obama goes, I don't see leadership and strength, but rather arrogance. Every proposal he put outs he makes sure to say this is what the American people voted for. Just like every other politician, they never want to assume responsibility. How many times is Obama and his cronies going to say they inherited this mess. Leaders don't continually blame others, they move on and try to fix the mess. Yet Obama's agenda, policies and increased spending on crap is only going to make things worse. This guy has no clue, but makes sure to surround himself with only those who agree with him. I still can't believe a snake oil salesmen, community organizer is running our Country. Just shows how stupid and misguided many Americans are. If the media would just hold Obama to the fire rather than hold his hand and throw him softball questions, you would see just how incompetent he is. How long will the ass kissing media protect this guy?

 

[KittenKoder]

TwoGreen made some excellent points. I might also add ... Jr. did the same thing with his only with mostly Republican pork. Pork is pork, regardless of which side does it, ignoring on type just because you support it and attacking the other just because you don't like it doesn't change the fact that both sides do it.

 

[Zoom-boing]

TwoGreen made some excellent points. I might also add ... Jr. did the same thing with his only with mostly Republican pork. Pork is pork, regardless of which side does it, ignoring on type just because you support it and attacking the other just because you don't like it doesn't change the fact that both sides do it.

Absolutely! Arlen Specter (R-PA), who voted yes on the stim package, made damn sure $10 billion for the National Institutes of Health, his pet project, wasn't cut back.

 

[editec]

I only WISH that Rosetta was Olympia's pet project.

It's long overdue due for some economic stimulation

 

[Jon]

TwoGreen made some excellent points. I might also add ... Jr. did the same thing with his only with mostly Republican pork. Pork is pork, regardless of which side does it, ignoring on type just because you support it and attacking the other just because you don't like it doesn't change the fact that both sides do it.

Precisely, you said it yourself. "Pork is pork." Obama said, "NO MORE PORK!" His first spending bill is nothing BUT pork. I'm not surprised, but it's pretty amusing watching the lefties eat this shit up and pretend to love it. And at the same time, it's frustrating watching Obama get away with whatever he wants and not getting called on his bullshit by any viable media source. Although I did enjoy Glenn Beck's rant on Thursday.

I think the correct title for this thread would be, "Obama will sign spending bill BECAUSE OF earmarks."

 

[Vel]

pork is in the eye of the beholder...as was said on many news shows yesterday if a bill has money allocated for a senaters state he will say it is good cause its for HIS state but if nothing is in it for him its pork and its bad

No, pork is NOT in the eye of the beholder. Pork is pork, whether you call it bacon or tenderloin. If we take federal spending and subject it to constitutional muster we'd probably find that 50% or more of all federal spending is spent on things that are supposed to be the the province of the states.

 

[DavidS]

yawn.