Did Obama Lie About Earmarks?

[Dos Equis]

Hmmmm. 

Obama Tied to Millions in Budget Earmarks

Friday, February 27, 2009 5:04 PM

By: David Eberhart and David A. Patten    

President Obama and top members of his administration appear to be sponsoring hundreds of millions of dollars of earmarks in the 2009 budget that Obama is trying to push through Congress, CQPolitics.com reports.

In the congressional report that accompanies the budget legislation, Obama is listed as a sponsor of a $7.7 million earmark for "Tribally Controlled Postsecondary Vocational Institutions." Obam's co-sponsors on that earmark include Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

President Obama pledged to fight the addition of pork-barrel earmarks to legislation during the presidential campaign. Last April, for example, Obama released a statement stating: "We can no longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a member of Congress' seniority, rather than the merit of the project."

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Biden, Clinton, and three other Cabinet secretaries who served in Congress last year are listed as sponsors or co-sponsors of hundreds of millions of dollars of earmarks attached to the spending bill.

The House approved the $410 billion omnibus budget measure Wednesday, sending it on to the Senate.

According to CQPolitics.com, Senate staffers say Obama's name will be removed as a sponsor. It is not clear if Obama will insist that his cabinet officers withdraw their earmark requests, however.

Other earmarks traced back to members of the Obama administration:

# Vice President Joe Biden, who asked for $94.9 million in set-asides before assuming his new office. He is a co-sponsor of those expenditure requests.

# Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was the lone sponsor on $5.4 million of earmarks in the budget bill. Including the earmarks he supported as a secondary sponsor, he's linked to $227.4 million of earmarks.

# Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood asked for $31.2 million in earmarks, including $380,000 to replace vehicles that assist disabled persons in LaHood's hometown of Peoria, Ill., the Web site says.

# Emanuel, the former congressman from Illinois, is currently sponsoring $3.9 million in earmarks on an individual basis.

# Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis, a former member of Congress representing California, is linked to $38.4 million worth of earmarks, although she was the lone sponsor for only $814,000 of that total.

# Clinton sponsored just under $109 million in earmarks, although many of those were sponsored in concert with other senators.

On Wednesday, Gibbs evaded directly answering a question about whether Obama would prompt his Cabinet secretaries to withdraw their earmark requests.

The president has discussed and worked with Congress to pass some reform of this process that now ensure that people like you that are interested can go into a piece of legislation and see the names of those sponsors, Gibbs said.

http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/obama_budget_earmarks/2009/02/27/186605.html

[Dos Equis]

 

Rahm: Obama Will Agree to 9,000 Earmarks

Sunday, March 1, 2009 6:34 PM

President Barack Obama is set to sign a $410 billion spending bill with some 9,000 earmarks – a practice he repeatedly criticized on the campaign trail last year.

Dismissing the congressional pork as “last year’s business,’’ White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanual said Sunday that the president wasn’t happy with the earmarks. But, Emanuel said, Obama would nevertheless sign the bill.

Republicans criticized the increased spending and the abundance of earmarks, which account for $3.8 billion of the omnibus.

Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., speaking on ABC's "This Week," said the "fact that there are 9,000 earmarks in this bill and the fact that the vetting process just doesn't take place the way it should -- we ought to stand up and draw the line right now and stop the waste."

A practice criticized by both presidential candidates last year, earmarking involves individual lawmakers tacking home-state projects onto enormous spending bills. Funds are then diverted – with little oversight – to projects ranging from roadwork to Mafia museums.

The number of earmarks has risen dramatically in the last few years, drawing criticism from those who say the provisions are wasteful and divert money from more important projects.

The House approved the $410 billion spending bill last week to fund government operations through fiscal 2009, which ends in October. The legislation, which would increase spending by nearly 9 percent over the previous fiscal year, contains huge increases for health care, education and alternative energy.

The Senate is expected to approve the legislation this week.

Saying it would raise taxes during a recession, unfairly redistribute wealth and add greatly to the deficit, Republicans also took aim at President Barack Obama's $3.6-trillion budget on Sunday.

Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, the second-ranking Senate Republican, told "Fox News Sunday" that the fiscal year 2010 budget is "terrifying" in its policy proposals and "mind-boggling in the numbers." Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the top Republican on the House Budget Committee, called the budget the biggest change in the relationship between the government and the economy since the New Deal.

"It's almost as if we are relocating the headquarters of the economy…to Washington, D.C.," Mr. Ryan said.

Neither Republican leader expressed confidence, however, that the GOP could block Mr. Obama's budget from passing Congress. "You can't stop this in the House," Mr. Ryan said, and "it's going to be very difficult to stop in the Senate."

http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/emanuel_earmarks/2009/03/01/187114.html

[Dos Equis]

CHURP . . . . . . . . . . CHURP . . . . . . . . . . CHURP . . . . . . . . CHURP . . . . . . . . . .

[Soul Crusher]

There is not one truthful think that comes out of his mouth.

[Cap]

Spend, spend, spend and spend some more.  Does anyone see this clown for what he really is?  I can't believe Americans voted this idiot into office.  He never had a job, never balanced HIS own check book so he sure as shit can't do it for the country.  It's sad the DOW has to drop and we have to be in the hole even more just so Barry can create a Socialist nation.  Maybe he should stop trying to give hand outs to lazy people and teach them how to work.

[Dos Equis]

I really didn't expect this (the wild spending).  I didn't expect to him to be dishonest about spending either.  I hope the media calls him on this when he has his next press conference.