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NY Post - March 8, 2009
It's time for President Obama to put your money where his mouth is.
Despite a rapidly tanking economy and a current-year $1.75 trillion budget deficit, the president says he'll halve the shortfall by the end of his first term.
Not if he keeps on giving Congress a free hand, he won't.
Fresh from the $787 billion stimulus package, Congress last week weighed a $410 billion supplemental budget bill. The measure is meant to fund federal agencies through the end of September.
In addition to boosting discretionary spending by a fat 8%, the cumbersome beast also includes 9,000-plus earmarks - member-designated pork projects - totaling nearly $8 billion. The president has been talking a good game against earmarks - even though he got his fair share while in the Senate: In his first three years there, Obama scored more than $90 million worth.
But, after declaring for the presidency in 2007, he said he would no longer seek earmarks (albeit a promise not too hard to keep - like most senators running for president, he mostly was on the road and not voting on legislation). And he's been talking them down since. (continues...)
Despite a rapidly tanking economy and a current-year $1.75 trillion budget deficit, the president says he'll halve the shortfall by the end of his first term.
Not if he keeps on giving Congress a free hand, he won't.
Fresh from the $787 billion stimulus package, Congress last week weighed a $410 billion supplemental budget bill. The measure is meant to fund federal agencies through the end of September.
In addition to boosting discretionary spending by a fat 8%, the cumbersome beast also includes 9,000-plus earmarks - member-designated pork projects - totaling nearly $8 billion. The president has been talking a good game against earmarks - even though he got his fair share while in the Senate: In his first three years there, Obama scored more than $90 million worth.
But, after declaring for the presidency in 2007, he said he would no longer seek earmarks (albeit a promise not too hard to keep - like most senators running for president, he mostly was on the road and not voting on legislation). And he's been talking them down since. (continues...)
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