Friday, December 11, 2009

Obama lied, earmarks multiplied

Another broken promise. Did anyone even believe him when he made this promise? I mean, I knew folks who said the MAIN reason they were voting for Obama was because the Republicans had been fiscally irresponsible. We needed someone who would put a stop to it.

Ha ha haa ... they thought Obama was their man!

President Obama promised to reduce earmarks down to the 1994 level of 1,318. He then signed into law most of the 10,160 earmarks for FY 2009 and appears set to sign over 10,000 earmarks into law for FY 2010.

The President also pledged to veto defense earmarks and eliminate all earmarks with "no legitimate public purpose." Yet the President has not threatened to veto the pork-laden defense bill and is not known to have tried to eliminate a single earmark.

House Democrats pledged to reduce earmark spending to 1 percent of all discretionary appropriations (or approximately $11 billion).[11] However, the appropriations bills have already topped $11 billion in earmarks even before the defense bill is expected to add several billion dollars more.

House Democrats also promised to require that all House Members post their earmark requests online.[12] Dozens of lawmakers failed to do so by the deadline.[13] Many who did post their earmarks buried them in obscure parts of their office Web sites.


A few of these pork projects?

750,000 for the World Food Prize in Des Moines, IA;
$350,000 for the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins, GA;
$250,000 for a bike path between Lexington and Port Sanilac, MI;
$350,000 to widen Bristol Street in Santa Ana, CA;
$300,000 to Carnegie Hall in New York City;
$200,000 to renovate the Laredo Little Theatre in Laredo, TX; and
$400,000 to renovate the historic Ritz Theater in Newburgh NY.


I'm sure these are all worthy projects. Which is why we have state and local governments; to fund them at THEIR discretion, and appeal to local taxpayers (who will benefit from them) to foot the bill.