Earmark reform? 2009 spending bill contains 9,000 of them

[red states rule]

Here we goes folks. Look how your tax money is being spent


$200,000 for “Tattoo Removal Violence Prevention Outreach Program,”

Maine lobster earmark in the omnibus (Virgil should love this one)

$5.8 million earmark for the “Ted Kennedy Institute for the Senate…for the planning and design of a building & an endowment,”

and National Council of La Raza, $473,000 earmark from Sens. Bingaman and Menendez

and I thought Obama promised NO EARMARKS AND PORK


Earmark reform? 2009 spending bill contains 9,000 of them
By WILLIAM DOUGLAS AND DAVID LIGHTMAN
McClatchy Newspapers

During the 2008 presidential campaign, candidates Barack Obama and John McCain fought vigorously over who would be toughest on congressional earmarks.

"We need earmark reform," Obama said in September during a presidential debate in Oxford, Miss. "And when I'm president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely."

President Obama should prepare to carve out a lot of free time and keep the coffee hot this week as Congress prepares to unveil a $410 billion omnibus spending bill that's riddled with thousands of earmarks, despite his calls for restraint and efforts on Capitol Hill to curtail the practice.

The bill will contain about 9,000 earmarks totaling $5 billion, congressional officials say. Many of the earmarks - loosely defined as local projects inserted by members of Congress - were inserted last year as the spending bills worked their way through various committees.

http://www.kansascity.com/440/story/1047771.html

[Classact]

And they will stay in there and Obama will sign the funding ... why a vested interest... http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/o...mo_code=7B3A-1

[red states rule]

and yet, Dems are pushing trillions in tax increases to close the ever growing deficits - all the while Dems are pissing through our tax dollars


Reid to Obama: Let us keep earmarks


Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants the White House to tread lightly on earmarks, saying that any push by the Obama administration to clamp down on pet projects would be met with strong opposition from congressional leaders.

"We cannot let spending be done by a bunch of nameless, faceless bureaucrats," Reid said, arguing that lawmakers are much more in tune with federal money needs for their states than agencies in Washington.

Reid's comments came as he and Democratic leaders vowed swift action on Obama's agenda.

In comments to reporters Wednesday morning, Reid also blamed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for forcing Congress to jack up spending for congressional operations in the massive omnibus spending bill. Reid said that even though Republicans lost big in the 2008 elections, McConnell insisted that they maintain their staff levels, forcing about a 10-percent hike in funding for the legislative branch, whose budget totals some $4.4 billion.

"You should direct that question to Senator McConnell because we had trouble organizing this year,” Reid said, referring to a resolution the Senate must pass to formally organize for the new Congress. “He wanted to maintain a lot of their staffing even though they had lost huge numbers. And the only way we could get it done is to do what we did. So you should direct that question to Senator McConnell."

A GOP leadership aide said that Republican staff “aren’t getting a dime” more than they did last year. The aide also said that a $116 million-increase for the architect of the Capitol was more to blame for the increase in the cost of running Congress.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/19306.html

[Lizabeth]

Lovely....and our Governor is proposing State workers take a 2 day unpaid furlough to help with the cost of running government.

Renovations outside of needed repairs should not be happening in any government office. No shrines, memorials of any kind should be planned. Working Class people are skimping on food because of the increase in utilities and gas and these morons are going to build a shrine to Ted Kennedy? Are they going to have a car submersed in a tank as a memorial to Mary Jo in this building?

[red states rule]

Lovely....and our Governor is proposing State workers take a 2 day unpaid furlough to help with the cost of running government.

Renovations outside of needed repairs should not be happening in any government office. No shrines, memorials of any kind should be planned. Working Class people are skimping on food because of the increase in utilities and gas and these morons are going to build a shrine to Ted Kennedy? Are they going to have a car submersed in a tank as a memorial to Mary Jo in this building?

[Lizabeth]

I remember it...read Senatorial Privilege....and love to see just deserts!

[red states rule]

The Obamabots are lined up for their fair share

[Lizabeth]

So true but very funny nonetheless.

[red states rule]

So true but very funny nonetheless.

So is this one Lizabeth

[Lizabeth]

I have to visit that website! I'm sure my local Repulican club would get a charge out of these.