Obama Signs $410 Billion Spending Bill

President criticized because of earmarks

President Barack Obama signed a massive spending bill Wednesday, totaling $410 billion. He has received much criticism for signing a bill that contains thousands of earmarks. He spoke critically of earmarks during his campaign, and many Republicans have accused him of hypocrisy for encouraging passage of and signing the expensive measure.

Obama has pointed out that earmarks only make up about 1 percent of the spending.

Signing statement controversy

Obama issued a “signing statement,” which said some provisions in the bill raised constitutional concerns and those would only be taken as suggestions. He won’t be giving out any quick payday loans to projects that aren’t worthy.

However, Monday Obama spoke about signing statements that the previous administration had issued, saying that Bush used the statements as excuses to ignore portions of certain laws. Obama said he wouldn’t follow any signing statements Bush issued unless they were approved by the new attorney general.

Qualifying statements

Obama referred to the spending bill as “imperfect,” and he said government spending needs to be tightened. He also said there needed to be more guidelines for how to spend.

He also reiterated that during his campaign, he had promised to curb earmarks, not to eliminate them.  He said he believes that earmarks can often be useful.

“Done right, earmarks have given legislators the opportunity to direct federal money to worthy projects that benefit people in their districts. And that’s why I’ve opposed their outright elimination,” he said.

New safeguards

Obama also proposed some new safeguards today to ensure earmarks are used wisely. He suggested that any earmark that involves a for-profit company should include a bidding process to ensure the process is competitive.

He also said he intends to work with Congress to identify and eliminate bill items that don’t serve a legitimate purpose.