Obama whitewashes his earmark history
02/26/09
Spending, spending, spending. Congress is just fresh off foisting on the American people a whopping $789 billion "stimulus" bill that included funding for, among other universally agreeable, vital investments such as:
> $24 million for United States Department of Agriculture buildings and rent
> $176 million for renovating Agricultural Research Service buildings
> $295 million for administrative expenses associated with food stamp programs
> $650 million for the digital TV converter box coupon program
> $300 million to purchase scientific instruments for colleges and museums
> $400 million for equipment and facilities at the National Science Foundation
> $3.7 billion to conduct "green" renovations on military bases
> $375 million for Mississippi River projects
> $2 billion to develop advanced batteries for hybrid cars
> $5.5 billion for "green" federal buildings
> $300 million for "green" cars for federal employees
> $20 million for IT upgrades at the Small Business Administration
> $200 million to design and furnish Department of Homeland Security headquarters
> $98 million earmarked for a polar icebreaker
> $125 million to restore trails and abandoned mines
> $146 million for trail maintenance at National Park Service sites
> $600 million for the Environmental Protection Agency Superfund environmental cleanup program
> $25 million for the Smithsonian Institution
> $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
> $1.2 billion for "youth activities" (for "youth" up to 24 years old)
> $32 million for home-delivered nutrition services
> $160 million for volunteer programs at the Corporation for National and Community Service
> $220 million for the International Boundary and Water Commission, U.S. and Mexico
> $1.3 billion for Amtrak
And, the House yesterday passed through it's august chamber a $410 billion spending bill. Because, after spending a preposterous amount of money and exponentially devaluing our currency, what flows more naturally and comfortably than spending another astronomical sum of other people's money?
If you'll recall, back during the campaign, earmarks were occasionally a debating issue. Just occasionally. They might have been mentioned a few times, here and there. For what it's worth, here's what Obama had to say during the first Presidential debate about earmarks:
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.
Yes, you can just picture him now: ensconced in the Oval Office, shirt sleeves rolled, Stevie Wonder playing on the sound system, some aromatic candbles lit and President Obama pouring over every single page and every single line of the "stimulus" bill (that no one read actually did read before passing), and now this new mountain of financial commitments and pet projects and earmarks to the tune of $400 or so billion. And, while doing so, he's most likely encountered one provision that seemed very familiar, inasmuch as it has his name attached to it:
Obama’s name jumped out on a list of many earmark cosponsors because he and his staff have been so emphatic about his no-earmark stance....
The $7.7 million earmark — for Tribally Controlled Postsecondary Vocational Institutions — is cosponsored by a long list of other members of both chambers. The program appeared in Senate report language last year but its sponsors were not identified at that time.
Being the stealthy, Chicago politician that he is, Obama then chose the course of action that came most naturally to him. Just make it vanish. Gone.:
Congress will scrub President Obama’s name from a list of earmark cosponsors in the $410 billion omnibus spending bill. ...
The provision itself is still considered an earmark, and it’s staying in the bill (
HR 1105 ) — but it’s losing the Obama brand.
Flaunting already the promise to allow five days of public consideration of any bill to cross his desk - let alone time for any member of Congress to read the copious volumes - why should it now surprise anyone that Obama would engage in earmarking, even after making such a fuss about it to echo McCain during the campaign.
His name is gone. The earmark stays. The waste of all the money that we don't have continues.