Obama Will Sign Spending Bill, Fight Pork Later

Hacking off their earmarks

Ed Henry reports for CNN that President Obama is discussing guidelines which will help eliminate the parade of political “pet project” earmarks that are being inserted into pending legislation. To give you some idea of what a problem this is for America’s government, the recent spending bill went through the Senate with almost 9,000 unrelated earmarks tacked on. The money to pay for these gravy boats would come mostly from elected officials’ own pets: their constituents, the taxpayers!

Some lawmakers have urged Obama to veto the $410 billion spending bill because it is riddled with so many wasteful personal loan earmarks.

Next time, new rules

The White House has intimated that President Obama will sign the current spending bill. Much of it is a holdover from the previous administration and it needs to be into effect to help America’s economy right away, so the option to start again without the earmarks is unfeasible. However, he will lay out separate plans to attack earmarks in future bills. The president is committed to letting lawmakers know that there are going to be “new rules of the road.”

Numerous top Democrats, including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, aren’t supportive of the president’s earmark assault. He feels that earmarks are a “congressional prerogative.” Recently, he told reporters this point blank: “I don’t think the White House has the ability to tell us what to do.”

Pork is pork, say Republicans

“[Such bills] will not happen when the president has the full legislative and appropriations process in place,” said Peter Orszag, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Not everyone is pleased with President Obama’s decision to move forward with the current pork-laden spending bill, even though it gives many lawmakers with pet projects their own cash advance loans. House Minority Whip Republican Eric Cantor said that “If you make a promise, people expect that you live up to it. And that’s why this administration’s refusal to go in and change this bill, I think, is a false position.”

Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner said that Obama can’t write the bill off as “last year’s business” now:  “I’ve asked the president to veto this bill.”

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