Ear Marks…OR…You Can’t Make a Silk Purse Out of a Sow’s Ear…
Nine thousand earmarks in the Omnibus bill…and Obama’s words on the campaign trail:
“We need earmark reform and when I’m president, I will go line by line to make sure we’re not spending money unwisely.” Uh, huh! And this is supposed to save the economy…real economic reform…a bill that will spin us into spending oblivion.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19524.html
……….
As Rush said, the spending B.O. has done is more than all government spending from the Founding Fathers to the Coronation in January 09.
If you’d like to read a list of all the earmarks in the Obamnibus bill, look here:
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/upload/porktable.html
……….Some of my favorites are: Fruit Fly Facility, Oyster Rehabilitation, Swine Odor and Manure Management Research, Formosan Subterranean Termites Research, Tattoo Removal Program, and Mormon Crickets
Just for fun, take a look at the 2008 Pork Awards: http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reports_pigbook2008Oinkers……..
…………………….I am embarrassed that the ratio of earmarks of GOP to DEM is 40/60. I can imagine what happened…at first maybe the GOP were against the earmarks but then perhaps realized that not much of what Obama wants he cannot get so they jumped on the bandwagon figuring they could not stop it so why not benefit from it! I also cannot believe how these senators one by one stand up to defend their earmarks. An earmark is an earmark and I do not care what it is for. If the cause is worth supporting, show its merit on its own without sneaking it into the back pocket of another bill.
No End in Sight
In the past six months, Congress has enacted a $700 billion financial bailout and a $1.1 trillion stimulus. It has also expanded health insurance subsidies and is considering an expensive homeowner bailout. Now, with an 8 percent discretionary spending hike, Congress has seemingly lost the ability to say “no.” Runaway spending and budget deficits threaten to steeply increase interest rates and eventually result in painful tax increases. If Congress cannot even reduce the number of pork projects in this environment, there is little reason to believe it is ready to make the truly difficult choices on large programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. If Congress cannot strip the unnecessary earmarks and pare back the spending increase in this omnibus bill, the President should show the nation he is well prepared to use his veto pen.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/wm2318.cfm…….
Given what we have seen in the last 6 weeks, I find it hard to believe Obama knows how to veto any spending.
I was really looking forward to the project in Iowa that was going to help pig crap smell better. I mean isn’t that a worthy use of taxpayer money. When I lived in a small town in Iowa called Bondurant when ever we had a wind from the north it brought with it the smells of the pig farm located just north of town.
Fresh country air.
I think nose plugs would be cheaper.
My great uncle was from Lost Nations(not sure if I have the spelling right), Iowa. I don’t mind the smell of manure as much as the pig smell. When I was expecting my third child, I just about lost it at a petting zoo with pigs. So maybe I’m being too hard on them for spending pork on porky pigs.
[...] http://chicagobluesgirl.com/2009/03/07/ear-marksoryou-cant-make-a-silk-purse-out-of-a-sows-ear/ Unfortunately…done and more to come in 2010 unless we find a way, via a more conservative congress, to stop it. [...]
The First 100 Days… « Chicagobluesgirl’s Blog said this on April 20, 2009 at 1:55 am |