Posted on 02/28/2009 2:58:53 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
President Obama and top members of his administration appear to be sponsoring hundreds of millions of dollars of earmarks in the 2009 budget that Obama is trying to push through Congress, CQPolitics.com reports.
In the congressional report that accompanies the budget legislation, Obama is listed as a sponsor of a $7.7 million earmark for Tribally Controlled Postsecondary Vocational Institutions. Obamas co-sponsors on that earmark include Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
President Obama pledged to fight the addition of pork-barrel earmarks to legislation during the presidential campaign. Last April, for example, Obama released a statement stating: "We can no longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a member of Congress' seniority, rather than the merit of the project."
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Biden, Clinton, and three other Cabinet secretaries who served in Congress last year are listed as sponsors or co-sponsors of hundreds of millions of dollars of earmarks attached to the spending bill.
The House approved the $410 billion omnibus budget measure Wednesday, sending it on to the Senate.
According to CQPolitics.com, Senate staffers say Obamas name will be removed as a sponsor. It is not clear if Obama will insist that his cabinet officers withdraw their earmark requests, however.
Other earmarks traced back to members of the Obama administration:
* Vice President Joe Biden, who asked for $94.9 million in set-asides before assuming his new office. He is a co-sponsor of those expenditure requests.
* Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was the lone sponsor on $5.4 million of earmarks in the budget bill. Including the earmarks he supported as a secondary sponsor, hes linked to $227.4 million of earmarks.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Heard this AM on Fox that the dems are taking the Obama and Biden names off and reassigning the bills to other senators. (-; cute
Here's the new King and Queen!
Each tribally-controlled postsecondary institution trains 100 or more students each year.
LaHood will be the ultimate administrator of four of his own earmarks within the money being given to the Transportation Department, including $380,000 to replace vehicles for the disabled in his hometown of Peoria.
Trained to do what? And so the average cost for whatever training is $77,000/student/year?
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