President Obama & Earmarks

Obama could have simply vetoed the bill and told Congress to remove the pork. But he didn’t. Because he’s a puppet and a liar. Pelosi and Reid run the show, not Obama. I think that much is clear. Next up, a SECOND stimulus bill, again courtesy of Pelosi/Reid, even before the first one can take effect. More payoffs to Democratic supporters and special interests, while American families are crushed by more and more federal debt. Can we say catastrophic economic collapse? Yes we can!

So after 14 years of Republican control of Congress and 8 years of Republican control of the WH, there’s finally somebody in office who’s taking charge.
And still McCain keeps whining and whining and whining. Anybody still wonder why that man lost?
He had his entire campaign built around this issue, which accounts for less than 1% of the entire *annual* budget.
Not addressed is also that eliminating spending does NOT lower the budget. What eliminating earmarks does is giving the *total* budget to anonymous and unelected bureaucrats behind a desk in Washington D.C.
In my view, elected officials should have MORE power and influence over the budget to direct money to projects in their own district. Good representatives of their districts *should* know better what needs to be addressed than anonymous buraucrats. With enough transparency, voters in that district are perfectly capable of assessing the representative’s priorities and if it constitutes wasteful spending or not. Their opponents in the primary and/or election will make sure his or her spending priorities will be highlighted and voters will use their power accordingly.

So Concerned, Sigmonde and Stacey are all on record as having more trust in anonymous bureaucrats instead of elected officials?

Correction: “Not addressed is also that eliminating EARMARK spending …”

Senator Thad Cochran (R-Hypocrite) is this budget’s earmark king.

Did you hear that the stock market went up 2 days in a row. Obama has a great working plan.

The Repubs lost the elections for mis-handling the budgets, broken promises and ignoring facts…WHAT makes you think the Dems won’t lose future elections for the very same thing??? The people are already looking forward to 2010 elections.

Do as I say, not as I do.
**************************************
So that is what the GOP is telling Obama.

Shame on Obama! Shame Shame!

Obama is also a liar. He made “no earmarks” a hallmark of his campaign promises.. and on January 6, 2009 on CNN politics Obama said: “We are going to ban all earmarks” (he lied) and today he’s signed a bill including nearly 9,000 earmarks, including his OWN earmarks and Biden’s earmarks stuffed into the bloated bill last year. Disgusting hypocrite!
Kudos to Sen. Russ Feingold, Sen. Evan Bayh and Sen. John McCain who stood strong against earmarks. They always do. McCain has NEVER taken any earmarks in ALL of his years in the Senate. Wow. Too few in Congress of either can claim that. McCain and Feingold have both fought for reigning in campaign spending as well. Remember the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Bill? Obama lied about that too, promising to take public financing of his campaign, he did not and spent nearly a billion dollars on his campaign, ruining any chance anytime soon of campaign finance reform. Shame on him and the DNC for allowing it.
That’s why this Hillary supporting Democrat voted for John McCain. At least you can respect the man. I am one very disappointed centrist Democrat. Obama is leading us down a very dangerous spending path burdening our children with massive debt. It’s outrageously unfair.
Wake up America! Despite what Newsweek mag rag claims, socialism is very bad for America. Capitalism is what made America great! Let’s fight to keep it!
(The author of the Newsweek rag cover story on socialism is Evan Thomas, grandson of 6 time National Socialist Party candidate for President of the U.S., from 1928-1948 none other than Norman Thomas!) Surprised? Sickened? You should be!
Learn history. Let’s not repeat the mistakes of the past.
Anyone care to join me for a tea party? Why can’t Obama hire anyone who pays their damn taxes?

Finally Obama tells both sides enough is enough. I love hearing Republicans with the message of ‘do as I say, but don’t do as I do’.
was it 38 republicans that put ear marks in the Bill and then voted against it? MSNBC and CNN are the real whistle blowers on this one.

Traveler
the President needs to be tough with both Democrats and republicans.. the speaker seems to think shes shadow president and thats not the way it works venting frustration after not being able to do anything for 8 yrs is not the way to go! there is a thing called class that the Sec of State has which your kind does not!

He still signed the pork ridden monster. Impeach the socialist idiot Obama now

Obama does not have line item veto authority. The problem is most members of Congress want the earmarks, which would have resulted in enough votes to override Obama’s veto.
Contact the members of Congress for your state – tell them to not ask for money that would go to your state.

Obama signs a pork-laden bill and promises it to be a point of departure is akin to a smoker lights up a cigarette while promises it a last one before quitting. Let’s continue to dream!

Just curious Obama supporters….this man has LIED, LIED, LIED to you again, and again, and again. It has been proven, it is obvious, there is no doubt. He does it again with this bill, filled with earmarks, when he promised that he would decrease earmarks.
so, I just want to know, do you normally stay loyal to someone in your life after they lie to you? Do you vigorously continue to defend them, as if they were a messiah, at all costs, even when they have betrayed your trust, again, and again?
I always wondered where they got the guests on Jerry Springer, crazy women who literally fight for men who have lied to them, cheated them, betrayed them. I didn’t think it was real.
But it is. Those are Obama supporters.

I just want to know, do you normally stay loyal to someone in your life after they lie to you? Do you vigorously continue to defend them, as if they were a messiah, at all costs, even when they have betrayed your trust, again, and again?
****************************************
Well I guess it is a matter of expectations. You see you wing nuts did the labeling but the rest of us did the voting. IT seems you wanted a Messiah, but we wanted an intelligent, and active President.
He has not betrayed my trust, there are limits to what he can do, and there are certainly battles to be fought, but priorities do rule.
AS for my self much of what you wing nuts complain about the rest opf us do not care about. So did he betray you? NO you didn’t vote for him. Did he betray me? No; I didn’t vote for him for the same reason you seem to think I did. The Change I wanted was for the GOP to be defeated; I got that.

I guess we’ll give him a bye on this one..he’s right..this is old news. I think he has really upped the bar for future bills…maybe not a smooth tactical move. Mr. Line by Line..will have to muster up … next time.

Let’s give our President some support and give it time.
~~~~~
I will give him at least twice as much as the left gave President Bush – which will amount to a big fat zero.

Just to let smt know, I join plumber in saying I will give the president just as much support and just as much patience as the democrats gave bush– that is, nada. bush did work to deal with the recession and you blasted him for it. Remember tarp I? and earlier, remember the rebate checks that michelle made fun of on the campaign trail? i do not expect obama to fix everything in the first 50 days, but i do expect him to make progress and to lay out an intelligent and intelligible plan and to focus on this problem.

Posted by: smt | Mar 12, 2009 7:06:08 AM
We expect the President to fix the problem, NOT jam a million of his and Oelosi’s pet projects down our throats.

Of the top 10 Senators who requested the most money in earmarks, six are Republican.
Of the top 10 Senators who requested the highest number of individual earmarks, five of them are Republican and they proudly hold spots 1-4 on the list.
Never mind, there are 1 1/2 times more Dems in Congress.
ONLY Republican Senators Coburn, DeMint & McCain are free of earmarks with Feingold & McCaskill on Democrat side joining them.
So if Republicans want to cry foul over earmarks they can start by pointing the finger looking in the mirror……

“Can’t you all see that ALL politicians are the same when it comes to taking care of themselves first and our country second??”
Read some of the ridiculous post (if you can stomach them) before mine and you’ll know why I posted that. Conspiracy theories and any lack of reality rule the day.
No, I don’t think all politicians are that way, but unfortunately many of them are.

Posted by: Ranger | Mar 12, 2009 9:25:57 AM
Moral equivalence.
Obama promised to go through line and by line and change the earmark environment. He has failed.

drjohn- I can attempt a debate with you the earmarks on this bill, when this bill was put forth in legislation, how it came to pass, how bills get passed, parties responsible (partially Obama- but the jury is still out on this topic) etc – but it would just be a waste of time.
Everyone in this forum is aware that it does not matter what Obama does good, bad or indifferent – you will never give him the benefit of the doubt and in your eyes he has will always “fail”.
A true shame.

Ranger, I can’t follow your logic. The A/C guy challenged you when you wrote that Republicans against earmarks should look in the mirror, and you talked about how a higher percentage of Republicans are in the top ten earmarkers, etc. A/C suggested that all politicians are the same and you don’t get anywhere by playing the “the other side is the evil one” card. To explain your reasoning, you then wrote, “Read some of the ridiculous post (if you can stomach them) before mine and you’ll know why I posted that. Conspiracy theories and any lack of reality rule the day.” So I read all the posts, and I don’t see a connection. I see only one post that singled out Democrats as earmarkers– someone who talked about Pelosi and the Kennedy worshippers in Mass. I saw lots of name-calling from both sides (for the record, I am a republican but I am not a wing-nut *G*) I saw lots of complaints about Obama’s inconsistency on earmarks and a percieved lack of leadership on this issue. I saw lots of complaints about earmarks.
So when you make a point of blaming the Republicans and then saying, in so many words, since Republicans have done this, no republicans can complain about this. Horse hockey. I have never made an earmark in my life. I can complain about the system if I want. That does not make me a hypocrite.

Mr. Blame Game continues! It wasn’t me, I was busy partying in the WH.

OGLiberal @11:28 — Thanks for the great posting.

In my earlier post, I noted the claim GOPers have made about $30M being included in the stimulus package for studying field mice in Nancy Pelosi’s district. I stated that it was a lie. I put a link to the evidence against the claim from Politifact but I guess this site strips out links. For those interested, go to Google and search on the terms “politifact mice pelosi”. The link to the story should be the first one in the results.

i do recall NanFran Pelosi cheerfully saying “thank god BUSH is gone,i got tired of him vetoing everything!” now with a democrat majority they are spending like drunken sailors. Pelosi is already talking about a 2nd stimulus! they were in a rush to fill up the 1st w/their goodies. remember it started at 50 billion last may and grew to 800 something billion when OBAMA won, before finalizing at 748 billion in 1 month, Obama is currently the 1st president to increase the national debt in 1 month since taking over as president.

I, for one, have had enough of all the petty bickering between “left” and “right” over Obama. The Republicans are ALWAYS going to find fault with our president and the Democrats are ALWAYS going to defend him tooth and nail.
Give the man a break. He is NOT an omnipresent being who will save mankind from its own self-destruction. Mistakes will be made. We just hope *they* are able to learn from them and not do it again. I challenge any one of you out there to try to do his job. Then I would be more willing to listen to your critiques.
Instead of spending so much energy on finger-pointing and mud slinging from both sides of the fence, it would be more beneficial as a country if we could find answers to these problems as a whole, rather than apart. Splitting up the country will not solve anything.
A lot has happened during the last (almost) 30 years in our government. It is going to take time–trial and error–to resolve the problems we are facing today. Have patience.