Didn’t Obama Promise NO Earmarks?
Dec 18, 2009 Political
During the campaign for the presidency John McCain attacked the earmark process. McCain was in a good position to do so since he has used earmarks little, if at all. Barack Obama was one of the big time spenders with earmarks but he stopped using them because they were a liability. Then he took the same tough stance as McCain.
Just before Obama took office he promised an end to earmarks. He said he would not sign bills with earmarks in them and he specifically said that the stimulus would have NO earmarks. Remember, he was the guy bringing a new kind of politics to DC (the Chicago way, perhaps).
On his second day in Washington, President-elect Obama met with his budget team and promised no earmarks will be in the stimulus plan.
“We are going to ban all earmarks — the process by which individual members insert pet projects without review,” he explained. “We will create an economic recovery oversight board made up of key administration officials and independent advisors [sic] to identify problems early and make sure we are doing all we can to solve it.” MSNBC First Read Jan 6, 2009
The stimulus passed and it had earmarks in it. PolitiFact reports that they were there but only a small number. Maybe I am being too literal but “No earmarks” means NONE to me, not a small number of them.
Then the omnibus bill was passed and it had a ton of earmarks. There were nearly 9000 earmarks in that bill and Obama, the one who was going to end the earmark process, signed it. But that was only once and we will get it right from now on.
The Congress just passed a 1.1 trillion dollar spending bill and Obama signed it. So how did the guy who was going to end earmarks do on this one?
There were 5000 earmarks in this bill totaling 3.9 billion dollars.
This is a disgrace. It is bad enough when earmarks are added during good times but this country is on life support and we are out of money. We are borrowing money from China to pay our bills and the annual interest we pay on the loans is enough to completely fund several government agencies for the entire year. Adding earmarks to a bill when we are in such a bad way financially is irresponsible and demonstrates a complete disregard for our financial well being. It is wrong and Obama should have vetoed it.
Instead, he broke his promise and signed the bill, earmarks and all.
Another broken promise.
How is that Hope and Change working out for ya?
Related:
NPR
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
Tags: Democrats, earmarks, financial crisis, lies, Obama
Ron Paul Defends Earmarks
Dec 24, 2007 Political
Ron Paul was on Meet the Press and he had to defend himself against accusations that he put earmarks (pork to the rest of us) in bills while in Congress. Paul claimed that he never voted for an earmark and that he only put them in the bills because some of his constituents were asking for some of their money back. He said that he does not like the tax system but that does not stop him from claiming the deductions to which he is entitled because he wants his money back, just as his constituents do.
I am no fan of earmarks and I think the whole process should be done away with. No one from Congress should be allowed to add anything to a bill. Our tax money should not be getting thrown around to build bridges that help 200 people, build planetariums, or fund secret and usually non existent companies (Jack Murtha). No bill (especially a spending bill) should ever be introduced unless the Article and Section of the Constitution that authorizes it is cited. I find it odd that Paul would insert them and then vote against them.
If he wants his constituents to have their money back then why would he vote against the earmark? If he intended to vote against it then why add it in the first place. I’m sorry but this sounds a bit fishy to me. Paul is supposed to be the guy who keeps watch on such things so it is disheartening to find out he is involved in the process. Maybe his views are not as absolute as he would have us believe.
Paul is a long shot to win so maybe after he loses he can go back to Congress and keep introducing bills that take away the earmark process. Until all earmarks are gone I don’t want to hear Democrats or anyone else tell me that we are in debt because of George Bush or the Republicans. We are in debt because all of them have no control and they spend our money with little regard to the huge debt they are causing.
Earmarks must go before we ever discuss ending a war or how much war costs. Evidently, we are doing well if they can throw money around.
Ron Paul needs to get this fixed.
Source:
My Way News
Tags: earmarks, fiscal responsibility, meet the press, ron paul
Democrats Spin Failures into Successes – Reward Selves
Oct 27, 2007 Political
The Democrats took control of Congress in January and they planned to put their aggressive agenda into play. They had already promised America that they would be transparent and ethical. Since taking the reigns of power they have been neither transparent nor ethical. They have put billions of dollars of earmarks into legislation and often done so under the cloak of darkness. There are even earmarks for organizations no one can prove exist and those earmarks passed despite concerns that the recipients might not actually be around. The fact that Jack Murtha put in those earmarks should concern everyone as Murtha was caught on video tape trying to take a bribe.
The Democrats said they would go to a 5 day workweek. They have trouble with math because the day starts in the evening on Monday and they are done by noon on Friday. To these people, that is a 5 day workweek. Now the Democrats plan to reward themselves for all the “hard” work they have done by reducing the workweek starting next year. They claim that it is to give them more time in their districts but we all know it is so they can campaign and work to get a bigger control of the Congress. Everything they do is designed to get more votes and greater power. Rangel’s tax scheme is designed to have minimal impact on people making less than $150k (individual) or $200k (couple) because the Democratic base largely falls under those targets. The tax increase is designed to hurt people who generally vote Republican so basically, the tax increase is designed to make Republicans pay for government and social programs and to get more Democrats elected.
Many of the Democrats are justifying the short workweeks scheduled for next year by claiming that they worked really hard this year. Some claim they had to work hard to clean up the messes of 12 years of a Republican majority and some claim that they need to spend more time with their constituents. I want to know how they have not had enough time already. Every time there is a federal holiday they get the entire week off. They take the entire month of August off and they take time off whenever they feel a need to be in their districts or to attend a meeting paid for by some lobbyist. They are a disgrace and can lay little claim to success for this year. Their crowning achievement, to them, is passage of a minimum wage increase. They act as if this was some big deal and they did what they promised but the fact is, they attached this increase to a war funding bill that had nothing to do with a minimum wage increase. They did this because they could not have gotten it passed otherwise.
In reality, the Democrats have been dismal failures this year. But they still thump their chests and claim they did a great job so they want to work fewer days a week next year. They have complaints because they have not gotten a pay raise and they have families at home who they would like to spend time with. Well boo frickin hoo. The members of our military have families from whom they are separated and they do not get a week off for the holidays and they do not get a month off at a time. They do their jobs and they get paid a hell of a lot less than members of Congress, who are overpaid for the work they actually do.
I have an idea. Most people who have real jobs work about 240 days a year (excluding any vacation they might take). How about if Congress has a schedule where they must work 240 days a year to get paid. They can either work 3 weeks a month in DC and spend 1 week each month at home or they can work 4 days a week (days that must add up to at least 40 hours) and spend Friday-Sunday at home. They may also have off the normal federal holidays AND ONLY THOSE HOLIDAYS (not the entire week). Each member must spend 240 days a year working in DC on the job or they do not get paid.
Instead of patting themselves on the back and giving themselves rewards, Democrats should be asking why the approval rating of Congress is near single digits. Perhaps they should be worrying about why they are failing to accomplish anything that they are supposed to do as in approve a budget.
I think if they want to spend more time in their districts we should replace them in the next election so that the job will not be such a burden to them.
Source:
New York Times
Tags: bribe, Congress, constituents, democratic base, Democrats, earmarks, rangel, social programs, tax increase, tax scheme
The Democrats Will Be Transparent, Sure They Will
Oct 4, 2007 Uncategorized
Transparent, that was the claim they made when they pandered for the votes of Americans. They would be open and honest and yet, they continue to make back room deals with people like Abscam Murtha leading the charge to spend your hard earned money. Here is an interesting video that discusses the “earmarks” that this transparent Congress has requested. I just want to know if it is so transparent, how come no one is aware? I also want to know if the Muslim Congressman, Keith Ellison, is allowed to participate in the pork fest.
They are corrupt and they need to go. Having said that, Republicans were not very good at fiscal responsibility either. We need people in office who will do what is right. Let’s replace them all and start over.
Tags: corruption, Democrats, earmarks, Murtha, Pelosi, Political Opinion, pork