Obama decries earmarks, signs law with 9,000 of them

WASHINGTON — As a candidate, Barack Obama once said that a president has to be able to do more than one thing at a time. Wednesday he proved it, though not in the way he had in mind.

He criticized pork barrel spending in the form of "earmarks," urging changes in the way that Congress adopts the spending proposals. Then he signed a spending bill that contains nearly 9,000 of them, some that members of his own staff shoved in last year when they were still members of Congress .

Although Obama insisted that the recently enacted $787 billion plan to stimulate the economy be free of any earmarks — spending on special projects usually in senators' home states or representatives' districts — he made no such demand of this spending bill.

"The president could have done better. He couldn't have eliminated the earmarks in this bill, but he could have at least cut them back significantly," said Steve Ellis , the vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group. "We appreciate how he kept them out of the stimulus, but we think he's only batting .500."

"The American people know actions speak louder than words," said Rep. John Boehner , R- Ohio , his party's leader in the House of Representatives . "The president's new promises on earmark reform would carry greater weight if they had been accompanied by a veto keeping his earlier promises on earmark reform."

The bill contains 8,816 earmarks worth $7.6 billion , according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Notable among them are $155.9 million worth of projects that six members of the Obama administration who were members of Congress last year, when the bill was originally written, inserted into the bill.

Top among them was Vice President Joe Biden . As a senator from Delaware , Biden added 56 earmarks that cost a total of $52.1 million , including $13.7 million for the Intracoastal Waterway from the Delaware River to the Chesapeake Bay and $190,000 to help build a children's museum in Wilmington .

Others:

— White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who as a House member from Illinois added 16 earmarks worth about $8.3 million , including money for a Chicago planetarium and suburban children's museum.

— Interior Secretary Ken Salazar , formerly a Democratic senator from Colorado , $44.6 million .

— Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood , formerly a Republican congressman from Illinois , $26.5 million .

— Labor Secretary Hilda Solis , formerly a Democratic House member from California , $15.5 million .

— Secretary of State Hillary Clinton , formerly a Democratic senator from New York , $6.7 million .

The White House has pledged to send legislation to Congress seeking the rescission of all earmarks sponsored by current members of the Obama administration.

Geographically, Alaska topped the list, with 100 earmarks valued at $143 million , or $209.71 per capita. Next was North Dakota , with $110 million or $172 per capita.

The data show that it pays to be a top Appropriations Committee official. Hawaii , the home state of Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye , came in third, at $165 million , or $128.12 per capita. Fourth was Mississippi , represented by top Republican Appropriations member Thad Cochran , with $324 million in earmarks, or $110.59 per capita.

Last on the list: Arizona , the home state of Sen. John McCain , with $54 million , or $8.41 per capita. McCain railed against the practice throughout the weeklong Senate debate, just as he did in last year's presidential campaign, but his effort to effectively erase earmarks from the bill failed by a big margin Monday night.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090311/pl_mcclatchy/3186392
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And here is what Obama said in the debates:

"Absolutely, 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."

On March 10, 2008, Obama said in a statement : "We can no longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a member of Congress' seniority, rather than the merit of the project. We can no longer accept an earmarks process that has become so complicated to navigate that a municipality or nonprofit group has to hire high-priced D.C. lobbyists to do it. And we can no longer accept an earmarks process in which many of the projects being funded fail to address the real needs of our country."

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/mar/02/john-boehner/spending-bill-wasnt-candidate-obamas-type-boehner-/
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Gotcha, Mr. President. So whats up with sign the bill first and then we work on earmark reform.
Go ahead, make all the excuses you want. Call it a necessary "Imperfect Bill". Propose some changes after signing the bill. I don't think anyone will notice? Right.............

i didn't vote for him....but give him a chance...then if he fails do the nanny nanny boo boo

I don't do the nanny nanny boo boo.

Obama has adjusted so many policies that got him elected.

i am not surprised that this was one of the first campaign promises that was broken, i am sure we will have a long list to look back on in four yrs.

hun...then that doesn't apply to you

sorry...i'm se;f medicated right now and really don't care...tomorrow is a differnt story

The package is leftover from when Bush started it. It's 40% Republican.

The bad earmarks are 2% bad with the rest being good. Obama is too busy with the good package part to worry about the piddly 2% bad.

"Obama has adjusted so many policies that got him elected."

Whut the hell is that?

For Obama =

For you =

exactly! kinda like passing the most bloated and enormous budget with the biggest deficit in the history of the country and then comes on the tv talking about balancing the budget..

that deserves a coupla these:

Balancing the budget? HAHA... we will never see anything less than a $1 trillion deficit as long as he is president.

8 billion dollars is a "piddly" amount? thats pretty funny.

OMG can't we hope that our leaders will do the rigth thing fro the poeple and not assume the worst

I take the "if I think the worst, and it happens I won't be surprised" approach. It seems to be appropriate when our government is involved.

Then consider that even if you take the earmarks as 8 billion,
8 billion of more than 800 billion is not much.

I saw that on the news today. I guess he had to do it to get the bill through.

Can anyone name a pres., that didn't break a promise?
Kat

Bill Clinton ALL Over again!


Lies Lies Lies Yeah!

i lvoe you all...all of you diligent Obama supporters

wow i mangled my post...oh well

Obama shall rule forever as emperor of the world

Better than Bush Yeah!

well when you are running almost $2 trillion in debt, every piddly $8 billion counts.. It would be comical if it wasn't such a completely irresponsible way of doing bidness..