Earmarks Notwithstanding, President Obama Likely to Sign $447 Billion Omnibus Spending Bill

Very important to keep the government running, you know.
Can’t let all those highly efficient government programs grind to a halt. So many legitimately needy people rely on them.

If Obama refused to sign the bill…
Oh wait, whoa, for a minute there I think I was dreaming about America having a truly fiscally responsible president for once, sorry.
Back to reality and you know what they say about reality… It bites.
Go ahead, sign away in private, President Obama. You should be embarrassed about signing this shameful bill.

Posted by: Ryan C | Dec 14, 2009 7:17:37 PM
While it is easy to attempt to scapegoat Republicans on this issue, Obama is the president and is expected to LEAD. He stated he would reform earmarks and he has the authority to influence behavior of BOTH parties.
Senators and Reps. will be judged by their respective states when they next stand for election. Obama will be judged by ALL voters in 2010.
Is anyone keeping track of all of Obama’s broken promises? They are piling up faster than former Obama associates that have been cast under the Obama Bus.

“While it is easy to attempt to scapegoat Republicans on this issue, Obama is the president and is expected to LEAD. He stated he would reform earmarks and he has the authority to influence behavior of BOTH parties.”
Which branch of government makes the law that does reform?
Which party has enacted any sort of earmark reform law in the last 10 years (giving time to both parties in power)?
Which party formed a reform committee and vowed in Nov 2008 to tackle earmark reform yet they have not met since Feb 2009 nor have they issued the report due that month?
How many of the 10 GOP members of that committee continue to request earmarks?
Answers
Congress, The Democratic Party, The Republican Party, 8.

So, this bill costing $447 billion dollars, I’m not seeing the Senate passing it.
Oh, its the bill costing 1.1 trillion dollars.
Well thank goodness they’re keeping the costs down and worrying about the deficit. Good to have the President talking about fiscal responsibility and such. What’s another trillion dollars between friends right?
We’ll just borrow it from China, they’ll love loaning us another trillion dollars. They might ask about the plans to lower the deficit; I wonder if there’s a good answer if they do ask.

For those still in the haze in love
with this guy, do you now know he is
a typical politician in saying one thing
and then doing something else??? He
never met a dollar he did not want to
spend, tax or waste. And he calls the
bankers “fat cats”. I am hoping for a
change. That can be the new call to
action.

Which party has enacted any sort of earmark reform law in the last 10 years (giving time to both parties in power)?
The Democratic Party
Posted by: Ryan C |
So the dems reformed it? No wonder it is out of control.

“Reporters catch Gore in ‘embarrassing error’ about Arctic ice”
Gore says ice free
Researcher he was quoting said near ice free.
OMG its a scandal!
Meanwhile we have yet to find the WMDs that sent us into Iraq and cost us over 4000 lives and the Iraqis over 100,000 lives.
However we did just located the 22 million emails that the Bush admin claimed were missing and therefor could not be produced during investigations of their crimes.

It seems Mr. President believed his own message of ‘change’.

Posted by: Ryan C | Dec 14, 2009 8:24:09 PM
Obama promised to end earmarks, remember?
He was given a bit of a free pass earlier this year when he signed omni-bus bill laden with earmarks. If he signs this bill, another promise broken.
What else is new…

Breaking: Corruption-plagued US Atty nominee Stephanie Villafuerte withdraws
—————————————-
another of Obamas “culture of corruption” buddies bites the dust

Obama promised to end earmarks, remember?
Posted by: tjp612 | Dec 14, 2009 9:28:44 PM
____________________________________
No actually this is yet another dumb lie put forward by the right wing.
“Let me be clear, done right, earmarks have given legislators the opportunity to direct federal money to worthy projects that benefit people in their districts, which is why I oppose their outright elimination. And I also find it ironic that some of those who rail most loudly against this bill because of earmarks actually inserted earmarks of their own — and will tout them in their own states and their own districts.” Obama, March 2009
I do invite everyone to google for a second and look at Obama’s actual words rather than the false witness offered by those like wow | Dec 14, 2009 7:23:55 PM.
Posted by: jhw539 | Dec 14, 2009 9:20:34 PM

ryan c–
the gore situation wasn’t the mere difference between “ice free” and “near ice free,” was it? the timesonline article i just read lays it out more clearly than that. it’s a big embarrassment to gore, whatever your position on global warming. the scientist he quotes more than suggests that gore has misquoted him:
timesonline.co.uk
“inconvenient truth for al gore as his sums don’t add up”

“When I’m president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.”
“We need earmark reform.” Obama at Mississippi debate.
Because of some of the ridiculous items inserted into the stimulus package, folks have a right to be outright angry and not trust our Congressmen’s judgment on “earmarks.”
“Almost Empty” Mall Awarded Energy
Grant ($5 million)
Highway “Beautified” by Fish Art (122,000)
Anti-Capitalist, Socially-Conscious Puppet Shows ($100,000)
Colorado Dragon Boat Festival ($10,000)
Grant to Fund Search for Fossils In Argentina ($1.57 million)
Buffalo Residents Paid to Keep Journal of Malt Liquor and Marijuana Use ($389,357)
Learning to Cooperate by Observing Birds ($90,000) and on and on and on.
Republicans and democrats alike need to take responsibility for the money they are pissing away.
If the president says he’s going to take a stand on something so wrong…he better follow through.

Posted by: wow | Dec 14, 2009 9:51:59 PM
Can’t find an original source on any of that information – just right wing blogs repeating it like a virus. I don’t trust their information one bit.

He gave himself a solid B+ on his first year the job.
Posted by: Lone Star Rules |
Yep. In the next sentence he used the phrase “we inherited”.

tierra, Look at PolitiFact, it is Obama’s campaign promise #512.

Why on earth are you defending earmarks?

2 Republicans got the most money earmark wise

Buffalo Residents Paid to Keep Journal of Malt Liquor and Marijuana Use ($389,357)
Posted by: wow
I want IN on this one
;-)

Barack Obama March 11, 2009:
“We need earmark reform, and when I’m President, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.”
“Furthermore, it should go without saying that an earmark must never be traded for political favors.”

“There’s no doubt that the system needs reform and there are a lot of screwy things that we end up spending money on, and they need to be eliminated.”
Candidate Obama
______________
Wonder if that famous scalpel stayed in the drawer or did he pull it out and do that line by line investigation?

Yes, Foghorn if you could read thoroughly, you would have noticed Obama (in the line you misquoted) was referring directly to the conditions the Recovery and Reinvestment Act would have to meet.
Posted by: tierra |
It was not a misquote but I do concede the point that when Obama said that he was going to “ban all earmarks”, as you claim he never said, that he was in fact talking about the Spendulus bill which contained 9000 earmarks.
So, he is even more of a fraud on earmarks than I originally thought. Thanks for the enlightenment.

Barack Obama is a pathological LIAR. He has not kept a single campaign promise regarding earmarks, pork, transparency and wasteful spending. I wonder why this President is hell bent on his own destruction and that of his party? Anyone with half a brain can read the polls and understand what mainstream America is saying about his out-of-control spending, printing and borrowing,
which will surely lead to the fall of the dollar and our Triple A credit rating going into the toilet. When will he stop? Does he really think we can be a strong country when our Debt is 80% of our GDP? What is wrong with these ignorant Progressives? We have to take back our country, and SOON, or we won’t have one any longer. Obama must be IMPEACHED when Republicans take back the House next November. I don’t think we can hold out until 2012! This man is on a mission to destroy the greatest country on this planet. He must hate America as much as Reverend Wright does. What a disgrace that so many were duped by this Megalomaniac!

Posted by: wow | Dec 15, 2009 1:49:11 AM
Pretty much the only tactic the right wing has had against the Democratic candidates has been smear and fear tactics.
Smearing usually doesn’t involve logical arguments and it often involves unsubstantiated accusations and even juvenile name calling – now largely aimed at the President.
Watch for it wow, it’s hard to miss.

Obama has a 10-15 point MSM sycophantic booster spiff. Reagan had a 10% MSM ideological campaign against everything he did. Remove the hopelessly biased media and Reagan would poll 20-25% higher than Obama.

All Hail Obama!
All Hail the State!
Am I doing it correctly, tierra?

This man is on a mission to destroy the greatest country on this planet. He must hate America as much as Reverend Wright does. says Peggy
___________________
No question this President has been a let down and appears to be nonchalant about where he is going to leave this country. Yes, you are right, there have been some broken campaign promises and that, too, is disheartening. But, you have to know something – we elected this President and he is our leader.
As much as I disagree with this President on a wide range of issues I think it is going way too far to even think this man does not love this country and is attempting to sabotage it. He is doing what he thinks is the right thing to do. There is little doubt that President Obama has seen things as a black man and a community organizer that he feels are unjust and need to be corrected. He is on a mission to do just that. But, he isn’t doing this because he has some larger agenda as some kind of Manchurian candidate. He has a vision for America that he has the opportunity to pursue. You may disagree with it and it may make you angry (and it does me as well).
There are two things that I want to say to you. (1) There is nothing happening here that if the circumstances change cannot be reversed and corrected – this is a President, not a King and (2) disagree all you want, be angry and say so but we heard distasteful things from the left for many years about the evil George W Bush and they haven’t stopped yapping about it. We don’t to stoop to that level to make the point – he is still our President and the Office and the man should remain respected.

tierra writes: “Obama’s first budget: “$447 billion omnibus spending bill passed by the Senate yesterday — which has more than 5,000 earmarks”
The final Bush budget:”$410 billion omnibus spending bill containing, according to taxpayers’ groups, 8,570 earmarks”
______________________
Do a google search and look again. That 410 billion bill with the 8570 earmarks was concocted by congress in Feb. 2009 of this year (and updated through march). It is not a Bush bill, but an Obama bill. No taxpayer group that I know of has laid that bill at the feet of the bush administration.

tjb612: Don’t you think the Nobel Peace Prize was the funniest? I laughed until I cried. Although I thought the “Oops, the economy was worse than we thought” was pretty darn good, too. This guy’s not a prez, he’s a stand-up comic.

Lone Star: Obama has a mission for this country. Look up the definition of socialism.